ALAN Shearer last night ended eight months of claim and counter-claim by confirming that he will be staying with Newcastle United for another season.

The Magpies skipper is expected to announce that he has agreed a one-year contract extension at a press conference at St James' Park this morning, after news of his decision to reverse his previous pledge to retire broke late last night.

Shearer, who is enjoying one of the most profitable seasons of his career, had promised to hang up his boots at the end of the current campaign.

That pledge was made in the summer and, since then, the whole of Tyneside has been involved in a guessing game over whether Shearer would stay true to his word.

The striker has attempted to quell the speculation on numerous occasions but, as the season has progressed, the debate over his future has only increased.

Graeme Souness has led the campaign to extend Shearer's career although, as recently as two weeks ago, the Magpies manager was admitting that he remained uncertain as to whether the 34-year-old could be persuaded to change his mind.

That has now happened and, rather than worrying about recruiting a new figurehead in the summer, the Scot can now concentrate on strengthening his team around its current skipper.

Souness' presence at St James' Park has clearly had an influence on Shearer's decision, with the former Liverpool midfielder consistently naming the striker in his first-choice side.

That might not have been the case had Sir Bobby Robson remained in the North-East, as the former Newcastle boss had already warned his skipper that he could no longer assume he was a fixture in the first team.

That prompted an angry outburst from Shearer during the club's pre-season tour of the Far East, in which he gave his first firm assurance that this season would be his last.

"I don't want my last season to be an anti-climax," said Shearer at the time. "I don't want that at all to be honest. I want to play as much football as I can in my last season. I think there's a good year left in my legs."

The first half of the campaign suggested the striker's final season was going to be something of an anti-climax as he missed two months with a thigh problem as Newcastle slumped into the bottom half of the Premiership.

But, since the middle of January, the striker has been in inspired form, with his goals firing the Magpies into the last four of the FA Cup and the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup.

Shearer has scored eight goals in 14 games since the turn of the year, taking him to within nine strikes of Jackie Milburn's all-time goalscoring record for the club.

The pursuit of Milburn's tally has undoubtedly given Shearer an extra spring in his step and, with games rapidly running out this term, his decision to continue playing ensures he will go down in history as Newcastle's greatest goalscorer of all time.

Chairman Freddy Shepherd has been discussing the skipper's future for some time now.

A deal with the BBC to be a full-time pundit next season is understood to have caused complications with Shearer's choice of playing on, but Shepherd has always been optimistic that the Gosforth-born star would reverse his original decision.

"I believe he will still be playing next season," said Shepherd earlier this month. "I believe in my heart of hearts there is a good chance Alan will play on.

"I would love to see him break Jackie Milburn's record. Alan's a great guy and what you see is what you get.

"He is his own man, he isn't stupid and he will know whether he can go through another year."

Souness was equally bullish when he returned from his side's latest training camp in Dubai at the start of this week.

"I'm not a gambling man," said the Magpies manager. "But if I was a gambling man, I would guess he will be playing for us next year."

By the end of this morning's press conference on Tyneside, it should be clear that is the case.

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