Alan Shearer claims Mark Viduka was one of the Newcastle players he managed with a "brilliant attitude." The Australian would spend two years on Tyneside and scored seven times in 38 appearances for the Magpies.
Shearer claims Viduka had been forgotten about by the club and weren't getting the striker out to train despite being in the midst of a relegation battle. The former Newcastle interim boss said Viduka "worked his socks off" to get fit to try and keep the Magpies up.
Despite not scoring in the final four games of the season, Shearer has been full of praise for his former striker. Speaking to Match of The Day: Top 10 : "I'll just say about his attitude, I don't know if I've said it before - brilliant - when I went there he was just forgotten about. Newcastle - gone - eight games left they were paying his wages and they weren't even getting him out to train.
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"I just said to him 'What do you want to do? You can either sit here, pick your money up and do nothing or, at least take you two or three weeks to get fit, do you want to [get fit]?'
"He said 'I want to get fit, at least I'll try.' He worked his socks off, he was on time every day and he came in for the last four games of the season. He didn't score any put he worked hard and he tried."
When asked by Lineker if he had a bit of a reputation of being difficult, Shearer said: "Not that I'm aware of. At Middlesbrough, Leeds and Newcastle, he was very good.
"He had one of these body languages where people thought he was lazy, but his touch and technique was fantastic."
