After Arsenal’s 1989 title triumph, Paul Merson found he was in and out of the team the following season, but “Merse” came back to prove his worth all over against last term.
Now David Rocastle must do the same.
For a player who had been an ever-present in the 1989 Arsenal championship side, and who started in 28 of Arsenal’s 38 league games in 1989-90, it was a bitterly disappointing season.
Coming on top of missing the World Cup in Italy, after playing in most of the qualifying games, the disappointment must have been doubly traumatic.
Rocastle started the first 12 games of the season, and September was a good month for him.
On the 15th, Highbury newcomer Anders Limpar took Chelsea to the cleaners, and with the score at 3-0 and Chelsea expecting a shot, the man the fans were already calling “Superswede” slid the ball across the box, beyond Groves and Dorigo, and Rocky smacked in his first league goal.
But after Chelsea were hammered 4-1 George Graham was asked : Is there any mystery to Rocastle’s lack of form?
“Not really,” he said. “I’m not telling David to play any different, asking him to push on, take defenders on. This sometimes happens in football, Alan Smith has gone through a very similar period. The fortunate thing is, they’re playing in a successful team. Once they come through that period, which they will do, they’ll get it back again. They don’t get any hassle from me. I know they’re good players with good attitude. Excellent attitude, and they’ll come again.
“I think in the past he has held it too much, and got caught in possession.I thought today was David Rocastle’s best game for us. His distribution was excellent, his two-touch.That’s the way I like to see him play, to play with other players, play simple football in two thirds of the pitch, and then play risk football
in the attacking third, where he can have a go at people where it hurts. It doesn’t really hurt people to beat players in the defensive or the midfield third.”
Graham said that the player’s troublesome knee injury had cleared up, but that he was coming back for extra training.
“He still not as fit as I’d like him to be, so he’s the only one that doesn’t have a day off during the week. And he’s quite willing, he accepts that.”
At Nottingham Forest in the next match Limpar’s left wing corner was headed out by Laws to Thomas, who whacked it low into the box.
Rocky controlled the ball on the six-yard line, turned past Garry Parker and buried it. Things were looking up.
But October was a bad month. He was subbed against Chester, Man Utd, the match a match where Arsenals first win at Old Trafford under Graham (1-0) was overshadowed by a 21-man brawl. Adverse
publicity that week hardly helped focus their minds on their home game against Sunderland, and Rocky’s form was still a talking point
“I like my players to play somewhere near the maximum of their ability,” said Graham after Arsenal had scrambled another 1-0.
“David’s a lovely boy, his heart’s in the right place, he’s a good professional, but he’s going through an indifferent spell, as has Alan Smith. There’s only one way to get over that, and it’s to work through it.”
Smith had been dropped for two games in September, and now Rocastle was left out for a Rumbelows tie away to Man City. It was no surprise, although to lose his place in an unbeaten team, a side which was making its best start for 43 years, he had to be playing badly.
After that, it was all downhill ,the season virtually ended for the young Gunner who had won his first senior cap at the age of 21.
It has taken him eight weeks to get back into the team .
For the Boxing Day game at home to Derby, Groves is injured, and Rocastle was back but his bad luck continued. He immediately broke a small toe, but managed to play on for 56 minutes .Arsenal had taken over the league leadership in January,and were doing very well without him, and he did not return until March, when he replaced Michael Thomas in the No 4 shirt for games at Norwich and Derby.
But he did not reappear, even as a sub, during the crucial April-May title run-in.
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Dave Sexton picked him 14 times for his England Under- 21 side, using him in the inside right position, where he played all his schoolboy, youth and Arsenal reserve football.
George always used Rocky as a flank player because he said he did not do enough work in defence to play central midfield. But Rocky , like Hayes and Marwood, had the freedom to go looking for
the ball, and to get into the penalty area.
Then, when Arsenal started using David O’Leary as a sweeper, the new system suited Rocastle because he could hang around up front with Smith and Merson, save his energy, get the ball and start
taking defenders on. He had a key role in Arsenal’s dynamic counter-attacks .
But when Anders Limpar arrived, and Kevin Campbell matured, and David Hillier made the most of his breakthrough at the end of February, the competition for places was intense. After Xmas, Rocastle only started three more games.
He was very unlucky to see Lee Dixon attain national prominence by making eye-catching runs which have been covered by Rocky’s energetic tackling back.
And while the midfielder has lost his place in the England team, Lee Dixon has taken over as Graham Taylor’s first choice right back.
Rocastle, still only 24, is a versatile player with a lot of skill and heart.
His strengths are dribbling, tackling and shooting. He has never been much good at heading the ball, and he is not a great crosser of the ball , but when he is fit and playing well, Rocky’s flair and dynamism make him an asset to any team, including England.
Finishing might be the key to his comeback.
A few goals against high-profile opposition, like the spectacular strike at Anfield in the 1988 Littlewoods Cup, would put him back in the headlines and give him the confidence to challenge for an England place before next summer’s European Championship finals in Sweden.