Blackburn Rovers F.C. season as play-off winners, ending 26 years outside the top flight. Rovers made headlines in the summer of 1992 by paying an English record fee of £3.5million for the 22-year-old Southampton and England centre forward Alan Shearer. After finishing fourth in 1992–93 and runners-up in 1993–94, they went on to win the Premier League title in 1994–95. The title chase went down to the last game of the season, but despite Rovers losing to Liverpool they edged out rivals Manchester United to win the championship. Kenny Dalglish moved upstairs to the position of Director of Football at the end of
Alan Shearer over Turkey in November. The season ended sourly, however, as Shearer was forced to miss January through to May due to injury and England's World Cup qualification chances were hit by a run of poor form. Returning to fitness for the 1993–94 season, he scored 31 goals from 40 games as Blackburn finished runners-up in the Premier League. His performances for the club led to him being named the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year for that season. On the international scene, England had failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup finals, but Shearer added three more goals