Stan Collymore has confessed he never really got along with Alan Shearer despite making his England debut alongside the Newcastle United legend back in 1995.
The former Nottingham Forest and Liverpool striker earned his first Three Lions cap in a 2-1 victory over Japan in the Umbro International Trophy. Terry Venables handed him a starting spot alongside Shearer, who was already established as England’s main man up front.
It should have been the start of a beautiful partnership. It wasn’t.
“I remember being around England camps and my England debut, I made my England debut with Alan Shearer,” Collymore told the Liverpool ECHO via William Hill Vegas.
“And we didn’t really get on either. Didn’t really speak, didn’t really say much to each other.”
‘A healthy tension’
Collymore, now 55, was at the peak of his powers back then. He had just scored 22 goals for newly promoted Nottingham Forest, earning a big money move to Liverpool for a British record £8.5million.
Shearer, meanwhile, was Shearer. The main man. The captain in waiting. The bloke who expected the ball and usually knew what to do with it.
Two big egos. One pitch. Not much conversation.
Collymore does not pretend it was unusual. Strikers, he says, are wired differently.
“I think that when you score goals, and goalscorers have to have some sort of ego, I think that you’re always thinking, ‘I want to be better than them, and I’m going to do everything I can do to be better than them’,” he explained.
“So I think that that always provides a healthy tension, as long as there’s goals going in on the pitch, it really doesn’t matter if you get on with somebody on or off the pitch.”
Same story with Fowler
It was not just Shearer. Collymore admits he had a similar lack of chemistry with Robbie Fowler during his two years at Anfield.
The irony? They still scored goals. Collymore bagged 35 in 81 games for Liverpool. The partnership worked on the pitch, even if they were never going for a pint afterwards.
“Famously Andy Cole and Teddy Sheringham didn’t get on,” Collymore added. The point being that goalscoring partnerships are not built on friendship.
Three caps, one assist
Collymore’s England career was brief. Three caps in total.
He earned his second during the same Umbro tournament, coming on as a late substitute in a 3-1 loss to Brazil. Then came a long wait until September 1997 for his third and final appearance against Moldova in a World Cup qualifier.
He came off the bench to assist a late Ian Wright goal in a 4-0 win. Shearer, by then England captain, was not involved that night.
Shearer retired from international duty after Euro 2000 with 30 goals in 63 caps. Collymore’s international career ended with no goals and a sense of what might have been.
What might have been
There is no bitterness in Collymore’s words. Just honesty.
Two of the best strikers of their generation, sharing a pitch for their country, and they barely spoke. It happens. Egos clash. Personalities don’t align.
But Collymore is right about one thing. As long as the goals are going in, it doesn’t really matter if you get on. The problem for England was that, with Sheaker and Collymore, the goals never really flowed either.
Three caps. Zero goals. And a strike partner he never quite clicked with.
That is the legacy. Not quite what anyone imagined when they lined up together against Japan.
