The former Newcastle striker's status as the Premier League's top scorer is not safe as long as the insatiable Norwegian remains in England
Alan Shearer airlines launched this month to fly Harry Kane to Germany and ferry the former Newcastle striker's Premier League goalscoring record to safety. Kane was just 47 strikes away from taking Shearer's long-running record, which stands at 260, but the England captain is now contracted to Bayern Munich until 2027, when he will be 34, his best days likely to be behind him.
With the biggest threat to his record now looking to make his mark in the Bundesliga, Shearer's status as the leading marksman in Premier League history looks assured. He can retire early as a pilot and put his feet up. Or can he?
Kane may be gone but there is another lethal goalscorer on the prowl ready to give Shearer fresh nightmares. After sending all sorts of records tumbling in his sensational first season in the Premier League, Erling Haaland has already made a flying start to his second campaign.
Shearer will need to keep his pilot's uniform in a safe place and start mapping out new potential destinations. The Manchester City striker is hungry and coming for that record.
(C)Getty ImagesOne record down already
Shearer has already had to endure Haaland stripping him of one major record. He was the last person to have scored 34 goals in a Premier League season, firing Blackburn Rovers to the title in 1994-95, five years before Haaland was born.
Shearer shared that record with Andy Cole and must have thought it was safe when the Premier League reduced the number of teams from 22 to 20, cutting the number of games per season from 42 to 38. Still, Mohamed Salah came close, scoring 32 times in the 2017-18 campaign.
Shearer knew, however, that Haaland was going to break that record when he interviewed the Norwegian in February, when he was already on 25 goals. "I know about a couple of your records," said the City striker with a smile.
Three months later, against West Ham, Haaland duly broke Shearer and Cole's record by scoring goal number 35. But what about the other record?
Advertisement(C)Getty ImagesMore than a goal per game
Even after his jaw-dropping start to life in England, Haaland does still have a long way to go to catch Shearer due to the former striker's longevity. Haaland has 38 goals compared to Shearer's 260. The fact he has a deficit of 222 goals to make up might make him seem like not much of a threat.
But his goals-per-game rate tells a different story. Shearer amassed his tally in 441 appearances, averaging 0.59 goals per game. Haaland has only played 36 Premier League games, giving him a rate of 1.06 goals per game.
At his current rate, Haaland needs to play just five and a half more seasons to catch Shearer. So, if he can maintain his current performance levels and avoid major injuries, he could take Shearer's record off his hands midway through the 2028-29 season.
Getty ImagesNo sign of slowing down
Haaland quickly settled any questions about struggling to live up to his first season by opening his account for the new campaign in less than four minutes against Burnley.
The Norwegian fired City into the lead with his first touch of the ball, volleying home Rodri's cushioned header. His second goal was another lethal one-touch finish, slamming Julian Alvarez's lay off in off the crossbar.
Haaland was hungry for a third goal and was livid with Bernardo Silva for not playing him in before half-time, leading to a telling off from Pep Guardiola, who backed the Portuguese for not risking surrendering possession.
How many other players would rage at team-mates when they had already scored twice in a first half? The incident was played down by Guardiola but it underlined Haaland's insatiable hunger for goals. And that's bad news for Shearer.
GettyGets better with every season
Many pundits thought that, as good as Haaland was, he would need some time to adapt to the demands of the Premier League and his goalscoring rate would drop off. In a stunning response to those doubters, Haaland instead scored more goals in his debut season in England than he had in any of his previous campaigns in Norway, Austria or Germany.
The simple explanation is that Haaland just gets better with each season. In his first year in Norway's top flight with Molde, aged 16, he scored two goals. The following year he struck 12. In just one half of the 2019-20 season with RB Salzburg he scored 28 goals in all competitions.
He added a further 16 in the second half of the campaign with Borussia Dortmund. In his first full campaign with Dortmund he plundered 41 goals. The Norwegian slowed down a bit the following season, which was disrupted by several muscle injuries, but still managed 30 goals in 30 games.
And with City, playing in arguably the best league in the world, he scored 52 goals in 53 games. Based on how his career has gone so far, we should be expecting Haaland to improve on that unbelievable tally this season. That means he could get to Shearer's record even quicker.