I could kick the ball blindfolded

Martin Keown caught up with fellow Arsenal legend DENNIS BERGKAMP on the 25th anniversary of signing with the Gunners

MARTIN Keown was wearing his new black leather jacket to the training ground. That was his first mistake.

His second was leaving it in the dressing room with Dennis Bergkamp and Ian Wright, Arsenal’s resident pranksters. Usually, whoever was deemed the worst-dressed player by the duo would find his clothes hanging from the ceiling.

“I used to have to get Sean, the ground manager, out with his ladder to get my gear back,” says Keown.

But Bergkamp had another idea this time. He got some gaffer tape and spelled out T-Birds on the back.

“Martin, you cannot turn up wearing a black leather jacket,” explains Bergkamp, speaking from his home in Holland. “He looked like John Travolta from Grease. You cannot do that.”

So Bergkamp still believes his teammate brought it on himself, along with the time Wright saturated his clothes. “Wrighty came to give me a hug,” remembers Keown. “I’m hugging him and thinking, ‘This jumper looks familiar’. I think the same about the trousers and shoes. Then he starts running towards the swimming pool.”

We are on Zoom to discuss the 25-year anniversary of Bergkamp signing for Arsenal for £7.5 million. For an hour and a half, Bergkamp discusses the old days and what lies ahead for himself and Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal. Kieran Gill joined the conversation.

GILL: You were brought up on Total Football. Did you know about the old ‘boring, boring Arsenal’ jibes before you joined from Inter Milan?

BERGKAMP: No! I decided to leave Inter because they did not live up to the promises they’d made. There were many options but I wanted to come to England. We used to come on holiday here. I spoke to David Dein and Bruce over the phone. The story from Arsenal was good. A solid team, in London, with players who were not too young or old. I felt we could build something and, straight away, it felt like home.

KEOWN: We had our canteen but you used to go home for your dinner.

BERGKAMP: It wasn’t food for footballers. It was all greasy and fat.

KEOWN: You showed us, even before Arsene Wenger changed our diets, that there was another way. Wenger changed it. Sometimes it was a little over the top because when we were in a hotel, the whole minibar would be empty. Okay, take the alcohol out, but keep a Coke in there.

He changed it completely but it wasn’t from him – it was something European. I came from Holland and Italy and we used dietitians. It must have been a shock for the English players.

I remember my first pre-season, in Sweden. Of course I didn’t fly with the team. I went there with the family, my wife Henrita. We had a game, then the next day we had two training sessions. In the evening, my wife and I went for a walk, and here are all these English players outside a pub with massive beers. But you couldn’t tell in training the next day. They were really going for it. Then they did it all again that evening.

■ A RECENT Match of the Day episode saw pundits Alan Shearer and Wright name the 10 greatest Premier League goals. Both selected Bergkamp scoring against Newcastle as their No 1. You know the one – the flick, the defender turned inside out and the finish.

“People talk about whether he did it on purpose,” said Wright, “Of course he did.”

BERGKAMP: I got texts after that game. “Did you mean it?” In my head, there was no question. It was a sequence of little movements which started with a pass (from Robert Pires) that came behind me. You can’t call it luck. It’s adjusting yourself to what’s happening with the ball, with the defender, the goalkeeper. Then it looked like that. I was happy with it.

GILL: Was that your favourite goal?

BERGKAMP: Argentina (at the 1998 World Cup) was more special for me. It’s the experience of so many hours of controlling balls, finishing, footwork and balance.

KEOWN: That was special. You controlled a 60-yard ball with one touch, lost your defender with the second, then scored with the outside of your right foot. You could always take the ball whichever way you wanted. It was as if you had hooks on the end of your feet.

BERGKAMP: Twinkle toes! I call it being comfortable on the ball. I didn’t have to look for the ball at my feet. I knew it was there. I could do that blindfolded.

Bergkamp is not one of those footballers whose contribution to the game can be summed up in statistics. For the record, though, he scored 122 goals in 237 games for Ajax, 22 in 74 for Inter, and 120 in 423 for Arsenal. The perfect end would have been to win the 2006 Champions League final, but two late Barcelona goals condemned Wenger’s 10 men to a 2-1 defeat.

GILL: Is failing to win the Champions League a big regret for you both?

KEOWN: I firmly believe we could have gone on to the latter stages, had we played our home games at Highbury rather than Wembley between 1998 and 2000.

One year I remember drawing 1-1 at the Nou Camp, and Wenger had been panicking about how their pitch was 10 metres wider than Highbury. But then we lost 4-2 in the reverse fixture at Wembley.

BERGKAMP: For our opponents it was a dream to play at Wembley.

KEOWN: Fiorentina’s Gabriel Batistuta was in the tunnel, rubbing his hands!

BERGKAMP: It gave them 5% more. They were motivated by it. I don’t think the club were thinking about winning it in those first years. But as we progressed, we thought we had a chance. We got to the final but couldn’t win it.

Johan Cruyff handed him his Ajax debut at 17 and he learnt from the Dutch master – and also from Wenger – so what does he make of new boss Arteta?

BERGKAMP: I watched Arteta’s first game (against Chelsea). It was clear what his intentions were with the team. The front four would chase the ball and put pressure on their opponents, but the midfield stayed behind. There was a big hole.

I don’t know if you remember the AC Milan of Arrigo Sacchi, with Van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard. In training they would have ropes between them so the distance between the players was always similar on the pitch. That was fantastic in our team as well. There was always a connection. There were no holes. KEOWN: Something for Arteta to work on?

BERGKAMP: He’s working on it, but it needs time and maybe different players. Slowly you can see them trying to play a possession game. Everyone on the ball has three options, triangles on the pitch. It’s much better than before. But it’s a different culture which will take time.

WHAT’S next for Bergkamp? He was part of a consortium interested in buying Wycombe Wanderers but the deal fell through. In 2008 at Ajax he nurtured the likes of Donny van de Beek and Matthijs de Ligt, who starred in the club’s run to last season’s Champions League semi-final. A 2017 clear-out saw the Dutchman dismissed.

BERGKAMP: I wanted to be the connection between the youth team and the first team. We were on the right track, but sadly that was finished rather abruptly and in a bad way. But you know how football is. You move on. My next step would be to go back on the pitch.

KEOWN: Do you miss that?

BERGKAMP: I do. Ajax is a finished chapter. I’d like to move on and see what happens. Maybe to work with youngsters, bring them to the first team, maybe in England.

KEOWN: I’d like to see you back. Football is a better place with you in it.