Blast from the Past no.50: Bryan Roy

Reviving the Premier League players you forgot existed…

The manager of newly promoted Nottingham Forest, Frank Clark, was given a decent transfer budget to aid the team’s return to the Premier League in 1994. Not a spectacular budget, and obviously peanuts by modern standards, but decent. Three million pounds – enough to make three of four solid additions to his squad.

But instead of scouring the football league for some reliable pros to keep Forest up, Clark decided to spend his summer holidays watching the USA 94 World Cup. Baggio’s penalty, Bebeto’s baby celebration, Houghton’s howitzer, Maradona’s wobbly, Valderama’s hair. It was glorious.

So you can imagine Clark’s excitement when he learned that one of the tournament’s exotic stars, Holland winger Bryan Roy, was available for almost the exact sum of money he had at his disposal.

Still buzzing from his summer of soccer, Clark signed Roy from Serie A side Foggia for £2.9m without a moment’s hesitation - smashing Forest’s transfer record and wiping out their entire transfer budget in one fell swoop.

“Bryan is a world-class player,” Clark beamed giddily. “The fact that he has agreed to join us is a remarkable coup on our part.”

Extravagant? Certainly. Reckless? Perhaps. Inspired? Oh yes.

Roy proved his value instantly. Employed as a striker rather than a wide man by his new manager, the Dutchman netted a stunning debut goal at Ipswich, bamboozling Eddie Youds (wow) with a sexy shimmy before lobbing Craig Forrest with aplomb.

Roy was paired up front with popular workhorse Jason Lee at Portman Road that day, but the following weekend he was introduced to his new strike partner, Stanley Collymore.

Not everyone found Stan easy to get along with, but he and Bryan quickly developed a special understanding.

“Roy and Collymore were a delight to watch. They were a front pair but really they played as two individuals. There was no real link-up play between them but they were both unbelievable,“ recalled one fan on the Vital Forest forum.

"He was a fantastic player whose partnership with Stan was absolute perfection,” agreed a fellow Red.

The unorthodox couple took it in turns to score spectacular goals on a seemingly weekly basis as Forest, who had been relegated from the top flight in Brian Clough’s final season just a year earlier, soared up the table.

A lethal brace against Leeds United and a delightful backheel against Wimbledon were among Roy’s more eye-catching efforts. At his best, no player in the land showed such poise and balance on the ball.

"He used to glide along the floor and ride tackles with ease,” said one Forest fan. “He had a head the shape of a perfect sphere and ran like his boots were unlaced,” gushed another (examination of Roy’s head confirms this claim).

If anyone was concerned that Clark’s splurge on Roy might leave Forest’s squad light in other areas, they needn’t have worried. With Colin Cooper and Stuart Pearce the rocks at the back and Lars Bohinen and Steve Stone pulling the strings in midfield, Clark’s side belied their status as Premier League “new boys”.

Roy scored 13 league goals in his debut season and Collymore netted 22 as Forest reached the dizzy heights of third - a league position they hadn’t bettered since Cloughie’s heyday in the late 1970s. It also remains the joint best performance by a promoted side in Premier League history.

But, in a sense, Clark’s side had done a bit too well. The prolific Collymore was signed by Liverpool for £8.5m, leaving Roy without his wingman.

In fact, Roy’s plan to replace Collymore turned out to be better than anyone else’s. The Dutchman urged Clark to sign his compatriot Dennis Bergkamp, who had been made available by Inter Milan.

“I expect that if we’d have signed Bergkamp at the time and had him and Roy up front, we might even still be in the Premier League,” fantasised one Forest fan.

We can only speculate about that suggestion, but what we can say for certain is that Bergkamp (who instead went to Arsenal) would have been a better signing than Andrea Silenzi, who arrived from Torino for £1.8m as Clark used his budget less wisely than the previous year.

“Roy was twice the player alongside Stan. He struggled without him,” lamented one Forest fan.

“Magical, majestic and mesmerising with Collymore. Without, not so much,” said another.

But even though Roy was clearly pining for his pal, he still had his moments - notably in the Uefa Cup.

Forest’s first European campaign since 1984/85 was hanging by a thread following a 2-1 first round, first leg defeat to Malmo, but Roy rescued it with a sublime, tie-deciding strike at the City Ground.

“Roy picked the ball up 40 yards from goal, drove forward with his usual balletic style and unleashed a superb shot from just outside the box. Without that goal I’d have missed trips to France and Bayern and those days are never coming back,” said one supporter with a peculiar mixture of awe and dejection (quite common these days when Forest fans discuss the past).

Forest subsequently knocked out Auxerre and Lyon before exiting gallantly to the mighty Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals. Things in the league were a bit less glamorous, as Roy managed a total of eight goals and Forest finished in mid-table.

“Roy was a great player but he would have scored a lot more if he could play in the winter. He really did not like the cold, so he often went missing - or when he did turn up he would be wearing tights,” said one fan.

In the city of Robin Hood, wearing tights needn’t have been such a bad thing. But Roy’s loyalty to the town would soon be severely questioned.

After scoring just four times in a disjointed third campaign at the City Ground, Roy was sold to Hertha Berlin for £1.5m, then quickly gave the impression he had no plans to return.

“Berlin has everything. It is a cosmopolitan city with theatres and the people are open-minded,” Roy said in a German media interview shortly after signing. “They are not as narrow-minded like the people in Nottingham. There are no theatres, no cinemas, hardly anything. All Nottingham has is Robin Hood… and he’s dead.”

While even the most patriotic Nottingham native would probably admit that Berlin pips it in the culture stakes, the comments saddened many fans who had previously worshipped their World Cup star

Some have never forgiven him, but many others have. After all, Forest have not enjoyed a season anything like 1994/95 in the two decades since.

“He should have been a Premier League flop during that era due to his physique, but he wasn’t and that is a credit to his determination as much as anything,” said one Forest fan.

“His partnership with Collymore was the best I have seen at Forest. What I wouldn’t do to have a player like him now,” commented another.

Roy may have only showed his true quality for 18 months at Forest, and they made a big financial loss on him in the end, but in hindsight that extravagant £2.9m purchase will always seem like money well spent.

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