He was the type of ref that was only too happy to allow United, and other teams, to rough us up.
Even the commentators, brooking and motson, getting on my tits. Scholes kicks the ball into Laurens balls after fouling him and both questioning why heās in agony 
At that point in time, though, Pearce had a point.
Collymore is the biggest āwhat ifā England ever had. Itās comparable with fully fit Gazza āwhat ifā.
Shoot me down if you have to, but Stan had every reason to be as good as Henry.
Where more people feeling like Bergkamp was a waste of money at the time? If not itās safe to conclude Pearce was full of shit.
I think initially there probably were quite a lot of people in England saying similar things, he did take a while to get going. I was a bit too young to say 100%, but itās definitely the vibe I get from a lot of listening to people talk about nineties football and Bergkampās very early days. Iāve also heard similar about Collymore as well, in terms of the player people thought heād become and how talented he was. So I get what DH is saying, even if history has clearly proven Pearce to be totally wrong.
Collymore was worth more than Bergkamp at the time, was proven Premiership quality and was young.
So, yeah, safe to say Pearce wasnāt full of shit 
Did people know Bergkamp was voted 3rd for Ballon dāor and World Player of the Year in '93? The proven Premiership quality argument is shit now and I canāt imagine it wasnāt shit 25/30 years ago. Collymore was from 1971ā¦Bergkamp from 1969. I think bad judgements were made.
People only knew Bergkamp for effectively knocking England out of World Cup qualification.
I think the next time we saw him on terrestrial telly was when Inter knocked Norwich out of the UEFA Cup. (Unless you were @SRCJJ and watched Serie A on ch4)
I donāt really think thereās a discussion to be had here. We all know Bergkamp is Arsenalās greatest ever foreign player (or at least in the top 3). It was the right decision in the end
Collymore should of been a legend but let himself down.
Never gave himself a real chance. Bergkamp looked a signing that wasnāt going to work at one time.
Didnāt have the greatest body language at the time and was coming off an unenjoyable time from Inter. Plenty started having concerns at the time as not many overseas players had become established at that time.
Iām pretty sure SRCJJ is my age, if Iām right, he was five years old when we signed Bergkamp. He didnāt know much about him either Iād guess haha
So basicallyā¦people had no idea about him? That indeed makes any discussion pointless.
@Stroller of course. England just came out of the Heysel suspension and I think the English League wasnāt as attractive for the better foreign players in the early 90s. Bergkamp/Ginola, Cantona before them started that.
Weird thing to say (swear Iām not a stalker) but the hair on the top left in the JVC shirt reminds me of @JakeyBoy 
Haha, not the worst shout ever. Wish I owned that shirt heās wearing not gonna lie
All this talk of Collymore reminds me of this absolute classic radio moment.
āChelseaāsā¦ey, errrā¦a Chelsea fan from Norwichā¦ā
I read the first sentence of this with dread but it ended the right way.
Yea you donāt understand the landscape back then. Collymore was looking like the original Ronaldo and Bergy had flopped at Inter and wasnāt doing it for us initially. If Collymore had the dedication heād be world class. If you look at Collymoreās best goals on youtube you can get an idea of what he should have become
Iām enjoying watching goals from players I wasnāt around at the time to see
A fitting tribute and win the day of Rockyās passing:
Goosebumps
