Arsenal legend Ian Wright recalls his time with club hero David Rocastle throughout their days from school pals to first-team regulars in North London
SunSport columnist tells tales from his career as the 16th anniversary of Rocastle's death approaches
THEY were the childhood pals from the same estate who become Arsenal legends. Ian Wright and David Rocastle…the Brockley boys who went from school mates to team-mates.
On Saturday BT Sports 1 charts the extraordinary story of the two Gunners heroes, premiering a day after the 16th anniversary of Rocky’s death. Here Sunsport columnist Wrighty recalls their days together…
Rocky was easily my best mate in football. The guy who inspired me to make my own dreams come true – and the one whose memory still leaves me choked.
He was the one who made me believe I could make it as a footballer, when no-one was prepared to take a chance. The guy who was always convinced I’d get there.
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The school pals from Honor Oak crematorium pitches who ended up sharing the same Highbury dressing room and playing in the same Arsenal team.
I first met Rocky when we were both at Turnham primary school. I’d be about nine and him five, so it really was a friendship dating back to our early days.
As kids, we used to stick him in goals when we’d play on the pitches at the crem. We’d play rush keeper, and he’d come out, beat everyone, score, then go back in nets.
When he made his first team debut the entire estate went crazy – it was unbelievable. Guys like us just didn’t play for Arsenal, but there he was, a hero. To us and the fans.
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When I was still playing for Ten-em-bee, a Sunday team in Sydenham, Rocky would tell me “you’re better than a lot of the ones I play against in the reserves. Stick at it.”
I never thought I’d get a break, and he was just trying to make me feel better, but he inspired me and eventually that chance came at Crystal Palace.
Rocky was a big Palace fan and I still remember when I came off the bench and scored a couple, and he gave me a massive hug, grinned and said “I told you.”
It was incredible. Two kids from the estate in Brockley, one an international star and the other scoring goals for Palace – but it was to get even better for us.
After I signed for Arsenal I went to his house and we stayed up all night talking about what it meant. I felt under so much pressure as people had gone to big clubs and failed.
He just told me ‘you’ll be fine – you’ll score goals because we make chances. And when you score against Spurs you’ll be a legend forever.’
I got one on my debut, in the League Cup at Leicester, but my first league game – at Southampton three days later – was unbelievable. The dream start in every way.
I made the first for Rocky, then got a hat-trick myself, and it is still the greatest match I ever played in…the proudest day of my life.
Even now it makes me smile when I think back to the baths at Colney training ground and Highbury. We’d sit in adjacent ones, just nattering about the Brockley days.
After I set him up for one goal against Man United in our first season together, he ran over, hugged me and said ‘this is better than being in goals at the crem!’
We only had that one season together, because when I went in one day Rocky was outside in floods of tears. He told me ‘they’re selling me to Leeds’ and I burst out crying as well.
I couldn’t ever envisage us not being together at Arsenal. It was so bad George Graham got me in for a long chat, so did Tony Adams.
It was so tough, a bolt from the blue, and we were both distraught. As it happens they loved him at Leeds, but that was no surprise. They loved him wherever he was.
But if that was a tough moment, it was nothing compared to the one which was round the corner – when he broke the news he’d been diagnosed with cancer.
He rang and said he’d been told he had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but was upbeat and said he’d be fine, would be having chemotherapy and felt okay.
That made me feel better about it – but when I spoke to him daily over the months, the more his voice was getting raspy and croakier.
After those calls I’d literally be bawling, because it was obvious he wasn’t getting better, but worse.
When I got the news of his passing, I just couldn’t cope. Even now, in certain situations, I can’t speak of it without breaking down.
He’d gone at just 33, my childhood pal, my Arsenal team-mate…my hero in so many ways. Devastating – just absolutely, horribly devastating.
Even more so for his wife, Janet, and children Melissa, who works at Arsenal, Ryan, who is in journalism, and Monique, who’s training to be a lawyer.
Rocky would be so proud of them all. Just like I’m so proud to have been his pal and his team-mate – I just wish we could still talk about those old days together.