Dennis Bergkamp exclusive Twenty- five years ago, Arsenal changed their destiny. Now, the Iceman reflects on it all with FFT
It almost started with a scuffle at a petrol station, but ended with a statue. Now, 25 years on from his Highbury arrival, FFT speaks to the Arsenal legend who transformed a club forever
ennis Bergkamp is smiling, as he remembers Clacket Lane services on the M25.
Just the merest mention of his visit, and the Dutchman is already getting flashbacks to the summer of 1995. “It was unbelievable...” explains Bergkamp, chuckling as he chats to Fourfourtwo.
He isn’t talking about the service station’s facilities, as impressive as they undoubtedly were 25 years ago. He’s talking about the moment when fate intervened – the moment he knew his Arsenal career was bound for glory.
A day earlier, Bergkamp had completed a £ 7.5 million deal to join the Gunners, following an unhappy spell at Inter in Serie A. Driving back home to the Netherlands from north London, he unwittingly took a much longer route than planned, ending up on the southern section of the M25 motorway.
Briefly stopping to fill up his BMW at Clacket Lane, just south of Croydon, he noticed the man behind him in the queue growing ever more agitated, frustrated that this rookie to the world of British petrol stations had parked in a position that blocked others from accessing the next pump. Eventually, the angry man jumped out of his car. It was Ian Wright.
The pair had never met. Soon realising it was Bergkamp stood in front of him, a suddenly joyous Wright sprinted over to give his new strike partner a hug.
“I’ve spoken to Ian about it a few times since, and it’s ridiculous that we could have met in that petrol station, at that service station,” says Bergkamp now. “How many people are there in London – about 15 or 16 million?! But you meet up on the day after you sign the contract for Arsenal, in the summer holidays – it was absolutely crazy. If that’s not a sign, I don’t know what is.”
The duo would go on to form one of the best double acts of the ’ 90s. Together, they would propel Arsenal to Premier League title glory, but Bergkamp had only just begun.
The Dutchman would prove the defining player of a sublime era for the club; the star who did more than anyone to transform the Gunners from the dour outfit that struggled through the final Premier League years of George Graham, to one of the greatest attacking teams of modern history. Along the way, he scored beautiful goals for both club and country. Few footballers could paint pictures on a football pitch quite like Dennis Bergkamp.
DENNIS THE LION TAMER
For Bergkamp, British football has always meant something special. Born in May 1969, he was named after the top scorer of that season’s European Cup: Manchester United forward Denis Law. As a teenager, he idolised the poise and technique of Glenn Hoddle.
He had to wait until the age of 23 for his first senior appearance in England. That night, the Netherlands travelled to Wembley for a 1994 World Cup qualifier. The Oranje were third in the group, having played a game more than both Norway and Graham Taylor’s England. Within half an hour, they were 2- 0 down and in big trouble.
Then Bergkamp changed the course of history. Jan Wouters dinked a pass to the edge of the penalty area, and his colleague needed just one touch on the volley – the subtlest of lobs to lift the ball over Chris Woods and into the net. The Dutch fought back to draw 2- 2 thanks to a late Peter van Vossen spot- kick, and England’s campaign unravelled.
Six months on, Bergkamp would put an end to the Three Lions’ World Cup hopes, netting the Netherlands’ second goal in a 2- 0 Rotterdam win. The Dutch would accompany Norway to USA 94.
“I always had a connection with England, so you could understand that those games were very special to me,” the 51- year- old says now. “When I was a kid, I admired English football. Once a week, I’d watch highlights from the English league on television. Those qualifiers were special moments. I was more motivated, more intense.”
Just as Marco van Basten was succumbing to injury, Bergkamp was emerging as the Netherlands’ new main man. As a youngster, he had learned from the greatest of them all: Johan Cruyff.
“I first met Johan when I was in Ajax’s youth team,” says Bergkamp, thinking back to that moment aged 12, after Cruyff had returned for a second spell as a player. “He was with the first team, but sometimes he’d come over to the academy and coach part of a training session. I remember he did that for our age group – he turned up and did a few exercises, we’d all follow him and copy, then he went again. He left an amazing impression on everyone.
“He was the first- team manager when I was 17, and took me from the youth team to make my professional debut in December 1986. He was like a connection throughout my career, and in Holland we call it a red thread. We’d always meet up – it could be a month apart or four years apart, but we’d always have contact.”
In his first season, Bergkamp was a substitute in the European Cup Winners’ Cup final as Ajax beat Lokomotive Leipzig. Cruyff left midway through the next campaign but Bergkamp came off the bench again in the Cup Winners’ Cup final, where this time Ajax lost to Mechelen.
A finisher as much as a provider in those early days, he topped the Eredivisie scoring chart in three straight seasons at the start of the ’ 90s – netting a career- high 33 goals in all competitions in 1992- 93, a year after winning the UEFA Cup. Bergkamp also scored three times in four matches at Euro 92, sharing the Golden Boot with Karl- Heinz Riedle, Tomas Brolin and Danish midfielder Henrik Larsen.
In the summer of 1993, a couple of months after that goal against England at Wembley, it was time for Bergkamp to take the next step in his career. As he made a decision over his future, he spoke to Cruyff – then in charge of Barcelona.
“Funnily enough, he never asked me to join him,” reveals Bergkamp. “But he had a certain way of speaking like, ‘ All right, why would you go
to that team or that team? That club isn’t good enough, and the other will give you these problems’. He never actually asked me to join Barça, but of course I knew that he wanted me to go there!
“In those years, though, you were only allowed four foreigners and only three could play at one time. I remember Ronald Koeman, Romario and Hristo Stoichkov were there. Big names. I wanted to make a name for myself, and I always wanted to go to Italy, so I decided to join Inter.”
In 1993, Bergkamp would finish second in the Ballon d’or and third in the FIFA World Player of the Year votes, having been third in the Ballon d’or 12 months earlier. However, his move to Inter didn’t go as planned.
Bergkamp joined the Nerazzurri after promises that they were planning to implement a new attacking style. Those plans were soon shelved and they plummeted to 13th in Serie A, avoiding an unthinkable relegation by a point.
“At Ajax there were a lot of young players – I wouldn’t say it was like a playground, but it was based more on technique and having fun,” continues Bergkamp. “As a striker, you’d have five or six chances to score in a game. But then you have to make the next step, and Italy was the total opposite of what I was used to. As a striker, you’d only have one chance a game and you had to make sure you scored, because there was a lot of pressure on you.
“If I hadn’t moved to Inter, I wouldn’t have become the player I was in England, because it was a learning experience. Sometimes in Italy, though, I saw football as going to work. You’d turn up at 9am and go home at 5pm. It was more intense – much more was expected. It was more serious, much bigger than the Dutch league.
“My wife and I had recently got married, so privately our two years in Italy were like an extended honeymoon, but in football it was work sometimes, battling hard to get some acknowledgement.” Bergkamp netted just eight times in his first Serie A season, although he scored eight more to become joint- top scorer in the UEFA Cup where the matches were more open. Inter went all the way – seeing off Norwich en route to the final against Austria Salzburg – and Bergkamp collected a third European trophy at the age of 25.
But that wasn’t enough to convince everyone at San Siro, and his second campaign delivered a paltry four goals. His relationship with coach Ottavio Bianchi deteriorated, and even the journeys to and from away games added to the Dutchman’s stress. Inter often travelled in small propellor planes, and Bergkamp became ever more scared of flying after a series of uncomfortable trips.
“It was a psychological thing that grew on me, to the point where it was interfering with my football,” he says. “For away matches, I was focusing on the journey after the game more than the game itself.”
In the summer of 1995, Bergkamp made two significant decisions. After meeting up with the national team ahead of a Euro 96 qualifier in Belarus, then realising he couldn’t face the flight to Minsk, he pulled out of the trip and decided his flying days were over. “I didn’t want to do it any more,” he tells FFT. “It was a difficult decision, but it made me a better player and better person. I could leave it behind. Yes, I missed one or two games that I didn’t want to, but mentally I was free to be a better player. It helped me.”
He also decided to leave Inter. “At the end of the second season, my agent asked the club what their intentions were for the next year,” he explains. “A lot of promises had been made but they hadn’t followed up on them, so again we asked some questions about the squad and manager. They couldn’t give us any straight answers, so both parties agreed, ‘ Let’s move on’. That was very late, May or June, and then we had to focus on finding a new club really quickly. I said straight away that I wanted to go to England.”
He wasn’t short of options. “I think my agent mentioned there were three or four clubs in England,” reveals Bergkamp. “I’m not sure if one was Manchester United, or if in London there were one or two – maybe even Tottenham, I don’t know.”
It was Arsenal, though, who grabbed his attention. He had already been intrigued by an article he read about the club in Dutch magazine
Voetbal International. “Arsenal had won the Cup Winners’ Cup around that time and there were a lot of stories about them, which I’d been digging into,” he recalls. His agent had connections with the club, too, after fellow countryman Glenn Helder moved to Highbury from Vitesse Arnhem months earlier. “Arsenal contacted my agent, and I spoke to David Dein and Bruce Rioch on the phone. They told me their plans and I had a good feeling about it. That was within one week of deciding to leave Inter, so there was no room for other teams any more. That’s the way I work – when I make a decision, I stick to it.”
NOT BAD FOR A CARLOS KICKABALL
Arsenal may have lifted the Cup Winners’ Cup after victory over Parma in 1994, but Bergkamp was arriving at a difficult moment for the club. League form had tailed off badly after their last title triumph in 1991: they came 10th in 1992- 93, when they were the lowest scorers in the entire division, then 12th in 1994- 95. George Graham had been sacked in February 1995, after receiving a payment from an agent. The team had reached a second successive Cup Winners’ Cup final, before being embarrassed by Nayim from the halfway line against Real Zaragoza. Rioch arrived that summer, with plans to transform the Gunners’ style.
“It was some sort of a gamble, but it turned out well,” the Dutchman says of his decision to join. “I didn’t really know about ‘ boring Arsenal’ when I signed – I only heard that throughout my first couple of years at the club, when people told me about it.
“They had the intention to build something around me, and to play attacking, attractive football. They lived up to their promises. I wanted to change something in the team. That was the reason I went to Inter, and that was the reason I went to Arsenal, too – to play my own part in that philosophy.”
But his first seven games for the club didn’t produce a goal. Unable to find the net in a League Cup tie at fourth- tier strugglers Hartlepool, one national newspaper called him a ‘ Hartle- Fool’ on their back page. Spurs chairman Alan Sugar made pointed remarks about big- money overseas signings, dubbing them “Carlos Kickaballs”, and Stuart Pearce suggested that Arsenal should have bought Stan Collymore instead.
Thankfully, most of the criticism passed Bergkamp by. “Me and my wife were in a hotel, Sopwell House, and she was pregnant which was another step in our lives,” he says. “We were in the hotel, sometimes desperate to make our own food, because after several weeks you’re fed up with the hotel menu!
“We never noticed that the papers were writing that stuff. My main focus was to do well for the club and my new team- mates. They were expecting me to score and make a difference. I thought those first few games went OK, but that wasn’t good enough. It was only after six or seven that I heard there was some talk about me. I think other players and managers had a go at me – even chairmen from other clubs, who said I was just coming to collect my money and then disappear again. I only realised that after one or two months, so maybe it was for the best or it would have been more difficult. I knew I had to improve, even though it wasn’t that bad at the start. But once I scored, it was a relief for many people – including myself.”
Bergkamp broke his duck at home to Southampton on September 23 with two goals in a 4- 2 win: the first an expertly- controlled volley, the second a sensational strike from outside the box. He scored 16 times that campaign, guiding Arsenal back into Europe thanks to a stunning late winner in the final match of the season.
But days before 1996- 97 got underway, Rioch was sacked following a breakdown of his relationship with the board. “When Bruce was fired, that was a strange time for me,” admits Bergkamp. “A year earlier, I’d joined Arsenal based on the plans they had. Now I was thinking, ‘ OK, what’s this? Is it going another way? Is it some sort of Italian approach again, promising things but not doing them?’
“But soon enough, I heard that Arsene Wenger was going to become the manager. When I played at Ajax, there were only two teams in the world who played a 4- 3- 3 formation – one was Ajax and the other was Monaco, where Arsene was the manager. So I thought, ‘ This actually might turn out all right – he’s got an attacking philosophy which could suit my game’. Then he came in and started talking to all the players. I understood what his approach to the game was, and we were on the same level from day one.”
Wenger also got the best out of Wright at Highbury. “Our partnership worked,” says Bergkamp. “We could learn from each other, on and off the pitch, and it seemed to help us both reach a higher level. I learned a lot from the English guys like Ian, and they were eager to learn from my philosophy of the game – they used to mention that many times. It all came together.”
“MY FAVOURITE? THE ARGENTINA GOAL”
In 1997- 98, Bergkamp and Wright fired Arsenal to the Premier League title. Bergkamp scored 22 goals, his best tally in English football. That August, he became the only player ever to have finished first, second and third in the same BBC Goal of the Month competition. One came
“IF I HADN’T MOVED TO INTER, I WOULDN’T HAVE BECOME THE PLAYER I WAS IN ENGLAND. IT WAS A LEARNING EXPERIENCE”
at Southampton, the other two on a remarkable evening at Leicester, when he bagged all three in a 3- 3 draw. Foxes manager Martin O’neill described it as “the best hat- trick I’ve ever seen”.
After a curling effort from outside the box, then a dinked finish which looped off goalkeeper Kasey Keller and just underneath the crossbar, his treble was completed in the 92nd minute. Brilliantly pulling David Platt’s ball from the sky with the outside of his right boot, Bergkamp instantly flicked it past Matt Elliott with his second touch, then coolly side- footed into the far corner with his third. All of it was delivered in one breathtaking moment.
“I knew I could do those sorts of things,” he says. “Everyone I played with knows what kind of level was reached in training sessions, and it all came together against Leicester. The first goal was special because that was a trademark of mine, curling the ball into the far corner. The second had a little bit of luck, but the third goal was so satisfying, as it’s something you’ve got in your mind. You want to do that move, go to the goal and score.
“It was very similar to my last- minute goal against Argentina at the World Cup. The ball is coming from a long way behind you, and in that one or two seconds you decide what you’re going to do. If it all comes together, that’s so satisfying.”
Indeed, it was striking just how alike that winner against Argentina was, in the France 98 quarter- finals, 10 months later.
“SO MANY PEOPLE HAD ASKED ME, ‘ DID YOU REALLY MEAN IT?’ THAT I THOUGHT, ‘ OK, I’VE GOT TO SEE WHAT THEY ALL SAW’”
“You practise five or six times a week for those moments,” he adds. “You know you can control the ball, have a good first touch, another touch and finish, but it’s a matter of doing it at the highest level. All of those little fragments have to come together.”
Given the magnitude of the match, that stunner to down Argentina is his favourite goal. “I’d say so, as it was on the world stage,” he says. It also took him past Faas Wilkes as his country’s all- time top scorer. “It was amazing – a quarter- final against a team like Argentina, then making history. You still see the goal a lot. I can only be proud of that.”
In that season ahead of the World Cup, Bergkamp had been voted Premier League player of the year by both the PFA and Football Writers’ Association – finishing third again in the FIFA World Player of the Year poll, this time jointly with Zinedine Zidane. Like Zidane, he played the game with an incredible beauty, honed from an early age.
“I spent hours playing on the streets and always admired a certain way of playing,” he says. “The way I moved, the way I controlled balls and my technique probably made it look beautiful. You’ve got to have elegant players, and some who play a different way with more tackles, working hard. That’s nice to see, too. Beauty was more my style, but it wasn’t that I didn’t want to make ugly goals or bad tackles.”
Bergkamp could certainly stick up for himself when required: he was sent off four times during his time at Arsenal. “I learned especially in England to defend myself, because it’s a very physical game,” he says. “You can moan and complain about it, but you can also do something about it yourself. Sometimes it looked a bit silly and wasn’t the right way to do it, but you have the mentality that you want to win, and that could all go down to one battle with a player who wants to take the ball away from you. The mentality kicks in and says, ‘ OK, I don’t want that’, and sometimes you do mad things. But I could handle myself.”
“OF COURSE HE F** KING MEANT IT”
After Ian Wright, came Thierry Henry. Bergkamp had suffered the pain of missing an FA Cup semi- final replay penalty in 1999, before Ryan Giggs’ solo goal put Manchester United firmly on course for the Treble. Months later, Henry arrived and another formidable strike partnership was formed. While Bergkamp was once the main goalscorer at Ajax, he was largely content to supply at Arsenal.
“I enjoyed trying to provide for the other striker, to make you strong as a couple,” he says. “It suited my game and it suited theirs – most of the time they were the finisher and I was the one preparing the goal. I could adjust myself to many different players. Thierry was probably the most complete player I ever played with – you can’t really say that he had some flaws, or something he wasn’t very good at. He also had a super mentality. He was a winner.”
Bergkamp brought an end to his international career after Euro 2000, to focus on club football. In any case, travelling to the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea would have been impossible without flying.
He rarely featured in European away games for the Gunners, having agreed when he signed that he wouldn’t be required to fly. Sometimes they missed him – Arsenal’s Champions League form was often not as impressive as their league form, but when possible he would travel to matches in western Europe by car.
“I’d go with my wife and her father,” reveals Bergkamp. “He did the driving, so it really wasn’t an issue. I was used to road trips from when I was 18, and I enjoyed it. It meant that I could go to the games and play – I had to cover a few more miles than the rest of the squad, but they were good memories.”
For the 2000 UEFA Cup Final against Galatasaray, he ventured as far as Copenhagen: a 16- hour drive from north London. Sadly his journey didn’t end in victory, as the Turks won 4- 1 on penalties. But Bergkamp would lift the FA Cup four times, and a second Premier League triumph came after another moment of genius.
Earlier in that 2001- 02 campaign, Bergkamp had memorably helped Arsenal beat Juventus in the Champions League, twisting and turning to provide a sublime assist for Freddie Ljungberg at Highbury. But the Gunners sat third in the Premier League in early March, ahead of a key fixture at second- placed Newcastle. Eleven minutes in, Robert Pires fed Bergkamp on the edge of the box, and the Dutchman scored what was later voted as the Premier League’s greatest goal.
Collecting the ball with his back to goal, Bergkamp brilliantly flicked it around one side of Nikos Dabizas, pirouetted past the Greek defender
on the other, then coolly stroked it past Shay Given’s despairing dive. So seemingly impossible was the move to pull off, a debate has raged ever since about whether he actually meant to score in the way he did. “I saw Dennis do stuff like that in training – of course he f** king meant it,” was Ian Wright’s blunt assessment.
“The week after that goal, ‘ Did you really mean it?’ was the question everyone was asking me,” chuckles Bergkamp. “I couldn’t understand what people meant by the question. I didn’t see the goal on television for several days, and so many people were asking me that I thought, ‘ OK, I have to see what they saw’. I watched it back, and then I could understand what they meant. The pass from Pires was slightly behind me and I was adjusting myself to the situation, because I wanted to go through on goal with one touch. I touched the ball, but my body was already turning the other way, so it looked quite good! For many goals, players just decide at the last moment what they’re going to do. That was the same with me. I’m glad it looked like that, and that everyone is still talking about it today.”
Arsenal won 2- 0 at St James’ Park that night, ending the season with a further 10 consecutive victories to overhaul Manchester United and claim the title. Two seasons later, Bergkamp was involved in one of the most remarkable teams in Premier League history.
There had been speculation about the Dutchman’s future ahead of the Invincibles campaign: out of contract, the 34- year- old only agreed a new deal just three weeks before the start of the 2003- 04 season. He insists, though, that he had no intention of leaving.
“In my mind, never,” he says. “I decided very soon into my Arsenal career that I’d like to finish in football there. I always had in my mind that 33 or 34 would be the end of my career – it was actually 37, which shows what a great time I had.
“In that final period of my career, my contract was extended by one year maybe two or three times. Before the Invincibles season, that was maybe the biggest battle with the board to get my contract extended, because at a certain age you have to take a pay cut and won’t play as often. But I always took care of my body and knew I had a few years left in me; that I could be important for the team. I must admit, when you have such a good time it’s hard to battle with people you respect, but you do it for yourself and your future. In the end, though, we both made the right decision.”
Bergkamp treasures every moment of the unbeaten Premier League campaign that followed.
“The word says it all – invincible,” he smiles. “You felt like that going onto the pitch. You knew you were going to win – it was just a matter of how, and by how many goals. You’d look around the dressing room and think, ‘ Jeez, what a team’. We were better than our opponents in every single area.
“We were all friends, too. We’d go to dinner with six or seven players, or meet up at someone’s house with the wives and girlfriends. Maybe you need to be a team of friends to be successful. It was a great time and it went down in history. It’s hard to beat – there have been some fantastic teams since then, quite recently with Manchester City and Liverpool, and they find it really difficult to do what we did. Every year, it makes me more proud. It was a tremendous achievement.”
THE LAST TANGO IN PARIS
The 2005- 06 campaign would be Bergkamp’s final season. Fittingly, his last goal arrived in an April fixture designated ‘ Dennis Bergkamp Day’. Supporters wore special T- shirts and a number of Ajax fans were in attendance, as the veteran came on as a substitute and found the net against West Bromwich Albion.
“A few months ago, I saw it again with my family because we read that ‘ so many years ago today, it was Dennis Bergkamp Day’,” he says. “We discussed it and I only realised then, ‘ Oh, it’s quite amazing that I scored my last goal that day!’ It’s special to put that down in history.”
His last appearance came in the Gunners’ final match at Highbury, against Wigan – but he would have loved to sign off in the Champions League final against Barcelona, even if he had only played a small role in that European campaign.
“I didn’t play a lot that season because my Achilles were worn down, so physically it was difficult,” he admits. “I spoke to Arsene before the Champions League final and he said, ‘ I’m not playing you in the game, but obviously I want you to come with us – you’re in the squad’. I knew I wasn’t going to play, so it was respectful of him to tell me. It was like,
‘ I know in those years that we’ve grown as a club, you’ve played a big part in it, and now here we are on the biggest stage in club football’. Arsene more or less said, ‘ Maybe we owe you to play in this game, but I just can’t do it’. I truly respected that and I understood, because of course others would start in Paris.
“I was only hoping to come on and maybe make a difference in my last game, but that went down the drain after 20 minutes when Jens Lehmann got sent off, and then it was a very different game. I’m sure Arsene had it in his mind to put me on at the end if everything was OK, but after the red card it didn’t work. I was so happy for the club to get to that stage, though. I knew I’d helped to develop the team.”
Bergkamp’s immense contribution would be recognised again, when Arsenal opened the Emirates Stadium by playing Ajax in a testimonial for the Dutchman. A few years further down the line, a letter arrived. Another significant honour was about to come his way.
“I knew I’d done something for the club, that the respect had been there from day one, but when I got a letter asking if it was OK – if I’d agree! – to have a statue outside the Emirates, I couldn’t believe what was happening,” he says, laughing at the politeness of the request to immortalise him. He was never likely to object.
“It was an amazing gesture, something for the big names at a club. I was part of Highbury for 11 years, but to still be part of the Emirates as well is fantastic, and shows how much Arsenal think I contributed in their history. It’s one of my biggest achievements.”
Bergkamp returned to his old club Ajax in 2008, remaining on their coaching staff for nine years before departing in December 2017 when the Eredivisie side decided to make changes.
He admits he would consider returning to England. “When the time is right, I’d love to go back and get a role somewhere,” he reveals. “At the moment we’re great in Holland. I’ve got a young family and have been out of coaching for a little while now. But I must admit, I have the urge to go on the pitch again and help, whether it’s with the technical or coaching staff. It might be a bit too early, but you never know. We’ll see what comes my way.”
Have Arsenal ever mentioned a return? “At the moment there hasn’t been any contact about that, but as soon as I make my decision, let’s see what happens,” he says. “Of course it would be ideal at Arsenal, as I spent 11 years there and have a good feeling with the club.”
Given that Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira are both managers now, with Montreal Impact and Nice respectively, does he dream of going back to the club with one of his old team- mates some day? “I follow how they’re doing from afar,” says Bergkamp. “It’s a shame that MLS stopped after Thierry took a job there, and Patrick is doing well at Nice.
“I’m really interested in Mikel Arteta and how he’s doing at Arsenal, as there have been signs that he wants to change their philosophy. It looked good in the few matches I watched earlier in the year. But my future, who knows? In football, one day is not the same as the other.”
Whether he ever returns to north London or not, his Arsenal legacy is secure. Just as he intended when he first arrived at Highbury in 1995, Bergkamp guided the Gunners into an era of success and transformed their style of play into one admired around the world.
“To be honest, that’s probably the one thing I’m unbelievably proud of, because it says you were important for a long period,” he reflects, 25 years on. “You don’t change a team or philosophy in a year or two. I was there for 11, and even now, people see Arsenal as a ball- playing and attacking team – definitely nowhere near a boring team. I believe I helped to change that.
“When I finished my career, the biggest compliment I received was from Bob Wilson. He said, ‘ Just remember one thing, Dennis – you were the one who changed this team, this club and this philosophy’. He was someone who had played a big part at Arsenal previously, and coming from him it was quite special. Even after all the moments, the trophies and the goals, that was one of the biggest compliments anyone could have given me. It made me realise ‘ OK, I’ve done something right’.”
“WE WERE ALL FRIENDS – MAYBE YOU NEED TO BE A TEAM OF MATES TO BE SUCCESSFUL”