STUART PEARCE MBE – THE MAN WHO SAID DENNIS BERGKAMP WAS A WASTE OF MONEY: by ken1945
Now I know Stuart Pearce never played for our great club, but it was ozziegunner who put me on his trail, when he told us that this is what the man said about our greatest ever player (at least in the opinion of those with a memory back to the 1950’s say) to wear the famous red and white shirt of The Arsenal.
I had completely forgotten about this, so I went away fact finding as I usually do!!!
Let’s have a look at the man, his playing career and his life after retirement.
Stuart was born on the 24th April 1962.
His clubs at senior level were:
Wealdstone 1978/1983 – Coventry City 1983/1985 – Nottingham Forest 1985/1997 – Newcastle United 1997/1999 – West Ham United 1999/2001 – Manchester City 2001/2002
His International record for England:
1987 – 1999 78 caps – 5 goals
Teams Managed:
Nottingham Forest 1996/1997 (Caretaker) – Manchester City 200/2007 – England U21 2007/2013 – Great Britain 2011/2012 – England (Caretaker) 2012 – Nottingham Forest 2014/2015.
What a fantastic playing career he has had, featuring at left back and earning the nickname of “Pyscho” due to the way he played – a real hard man, who expected his team mates to give 100% as he always did himself.
To give you an example of what his peers thought of him, Matt Le Tissier described him as the scariest opponent in his autobiography “Taking Le Tiss”, while Roy Keane described him as a “man amongst boys” while both were at Forest.
His clubs managerial stats, however, do not match up to his playing career. He was reported as having a win ratio of just 30.77% and is officially the most “average” Premier league manager to date!! (Thanks to Wikipedia for the above).
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So, what was it that ozziegunner was so incensed about from a man with this impressive playing career?
Well….
It was reported that Stuart had said that the signing of Dennis was “a massive gamble” and that he was unconvinced that it would pay off after he had “struggled with Inter Milan.”
He also rubbed salt in to the wounds, by saying that “I would have taken Stan Collymore ahead of Bergkamp, even for £1 million more. Liverpool have got a better deal than Arsenal.”
Stuart also said that “Dennis Bergkamp is a waste of money. I doubt he can help Arsenal win anything.”
Now I have no idea if Pearce has ever discussed his DB predictions and if he has ever apologised for what he said, either to the player himself or via the media.
The only real link I can find to this incredible assessment of a world class player, is the fact that he was managing Nottingham Forest at the time and, as you can see from above, his managerial skills regarding players was not very good!!!
Of course, he later became a TalkS***e presenter and I have no doubt his predictions and observations of The Arsenal and its players, convinced the station to employ him. He was surely seen as the missing part of their jigsaw, in relation to analysing The Arsenal players for goodness sake!!! What a godsend, another “pundit” on the level of AD’s.
Meanwhile, The Iceman continues to be worshipped at our club and the world over it seems – it’s just funny old TalkS***e and some of its employees who just can’t see what a wonderful player and person Dennis Bergkamp was and still is.
Let’s hope he returns to our club one day; we can only hope it materialises sooner rather than later.
I hope I’ve done your topic justice ozziegunner, I love everything about our maestro and no matter what Pyscho@Durham says, he will always be THE MAN.
ken1945
There are nothing wrong about what he said that time.
Bergkamp was failure at inter, his reputation is falling down so hard and lot peoples said dennis playstyle is not suited with kick and rush premiership
There is however everything wrong with what he said after the Iceman had played for the Arsenal. He would’ve touted himself as a good coach with eye for good or bad players had his predictions come true.
He was fortunately wrong and always will with the Iceman.
This is why fans better keep their doom concerning our new aquisition/s to themselves.
I think now all are convinced that Gabriel Malghaes will be an Arsenal player. He chose us over Napoli and we paid more upfront which killed any chance of them hijacking the deal . He will cost £27m.
Soon it will partyyyy time
Thank you Kev. I also read somewhere that Partey deal is almost done with only wages to be sorted out, if we can pull it off with the signing of Ceballos, this will be the best arsenal transfer in a long long time,
👍🏿
kev, I think it is £23.5 million, rising to a future £27 million with add ons. Gabriel is by reports on his way to Arsenal for a medical.
Yeah that may probably be how it’s structured
Arteta has convinced AMN and he will not be leaving Arsenal. The player wanted a move away to play in his favoured CM position but he looks set to stay
Thank Goodness, look forward to seeing him getting a chance in our midfield
When are the boys resuming Training,
Thank you ken for your detailed summation. I have always considered “Psycho” Pearce a great player, one you would want in defense, just a lousy judge of a footballer, who seemed to look down on certain types of players.
I disagree with arie82, that Dennis Bergkamp was a failure at Inter Milan. In his first season the Club won the UEFA Cup, with Bergkamp being the top scorer in the competition with 8 goals, including a hat trick. Inter unfortunately finished 13 in Seria A. In his second season they finished 6th, with Bergkamp only scored 5 goals from an injury affected season. These injuries mainly stress injuries and fatigue resulting from the Netherlands effort at 1994 World Cup.
At Inter, the problem was that Bergkamp did not score enough goals, due to Inter changing managers, formations and strike partners and the then well organize rugged defenses in Seria A. Bergkamp himself commented that the forwards he played with were selfish, which cost the team goals. He also fell out with the media and fans for his shy demeanour and his habit, as a family man, of going home straight after games.
The fact of the matter is, if he wasn’t a good fit at Inter Milan he certainly was at Arsenal. Their loss was our gain, big time.
If Stuart Pearce didn’t think Bergkamp was suited to “kick and rush” or the physicality of the EPL, he should talk to Adams, Keown and those who trained with him or opposition players, who tried to kick him off the park.
ken1945 also mentioned Matt Le Tissier; now there’s a player I wish we’d seen in the red and white of Arsenal, rather than Southampton!
Kev, Sami Mokbel from the mail also tweeted that he understands personal terms have been agreed with Partey. Will be glad if my countryman joins Arsenal. Fingers crossed
If all these rumours are true, what a squad of players we will have… it’s mind boggling and if it is true, we should think again about the kronkie’s ambitions.
If only we could unearth another Dennis Bergkamp, then all would be rosy in the garden.
Thomas Partey might be the new Patrick Viera, ken!
Indeed he could – we really need to take a step back and realise that this is now Mikel Artetas team – no ifs and no buts…. if it all materialises.
If what Kev says about AMN is true, it really is a great summer.
I agree what a squad that would be!yesterday I had a look at our squad after adding Saliba,Wilian, Gabriel,Partey and yes Aouar too, that would unbelievable but probably too good to be true!
Yeah. I am dreaming of fantasies too. Saw Aouar play against Bayern yesterday, brillant player, I must say.
Yes, I think Aouar will be too expensive in addition to Partey; however other players at lesser cost may be available like Szoboszlai, Diawara, Roca, Dacoure, combined with retention of AMN and ESR, and even Xhaka depending on the structure/combination Arteta wants in midfield.
Yes, I think Aouar will be too expensive in addition to Partey; however other players at lesser cost may be available like Szoboszlai, Diawara, Roca, Dacoure, combined with retention of AMN and ESR, and even Xhaka depending on the structure/combination Arteta wants in midfield.
Sorry about the double post!
It looksike Dacoure is on his way to Everton, a good buy by them depending on the price paid to Watford.