He does if for much of the seasons he is about as useful as Alan Smith - which was pretty much the case for every away game at the very least. He's always going to remain a good finisher, even now at 35/36 I would expect him to bury alot of the chances that the likes of Martins and Owen have been missing, so he did score a handful of goals (iirc 7 in the premiership with a bucketload in the Intertoto), but lets not gloss over the fact that it was labourious getting him those chances, nor ignore the numerous games where we had to put up with him being back pocketed with ease in the Premiership.
Even Ameobi went on a run where he was scoring frequently against mediocre Premiership opposition, particularly at home, and imo thats the level that Shearer had fallen to by that time. It was criminal that we let the situation develop to that extent, big clubs would have moved a player like that on or made him a squad/backup player, instead we thanked Shearer for his service by ensuring that he was a cast iron first teamer (with or without Owen).
Shay Given has been nearly as good a servant as Shearer over the years, we're talking about one of the best goalkeepers in the Premiership until recently, someone who frequently dragged us out of the shitter season after season. Yet he's been dropped for poor form now, and rightly so. Thats how it should have been with Shearer.
It's not often I say this, but I agree with tmonkey.