Alan Shearer has revealed that Newcastle United ended up having to pay £15.6m to bring the No 9 home because Blackburn Rovers had originally wanted the transfer fee to be paid up front.
Newcastle and Manchester United battled for Shearer's signature in the summer of 1996 - just months after the two clubs went head to head in the title race.
It was easy to see why Shearer, fresh from winning the golden boot at Euro 96, was in such demand after scoring at least 34 goals in each of his previous three seasons at Blackburn.
Both clubs knew it was going to take a world-record transfer fee to prise Shearer away from Blackburn and owner Jack Walker certainly drove a hard bargain.
"My plan was to always play for Newcastle one day. When that was going to be? I just didn't have a clue," Shearer told Gallowgate Shots' All With Smiling Faces podcast.
"They came in in 1996 and were prepared to pay a world-record fee for me.
"They sort of baulked at the fee when Jack Walker, who was the owner of Blackburn at the time, said you have to pay the whole fee up front. That was going to make it impossible.
"No one could have done that and he said it was £15m to Newcastle and £20m to whoever else because he didn't want to sell me to Manchester United or whatever.
"So they ended up paying £15.6m because Newcastle did the deal with Blackburn in the end and they said to Jack Walker, 'We can't pay the whole fee up front but what we'll do is we'll pay £7.5m on signature and then £7.5m in 12 months' time'.
"Jack Walker being the great businessman that he was said, 'OK, well, I'm not going to miss out so you have to pay the £7.5m and the £7.5m but you also have to pay the interest that I'm going to miss out on'.
"So they ended up paying another £600,000 on top so Newcastle ended up paying £15.6m so I suppose that's why Jack Walker was a great businessman."
Shearer was speaking as part of a fundraisng effort to raise money for his foundation and the shirt, captain's armband and boots the former Newcastle skipper wore while scoring his 250th Premier League goal are being auctioned off. To date, the auction has raised more than £104,000 and you can buy tickets for the raffle here.
