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When
it comes to picking Arsenal players crucial to the team most likely
to win the Premiership, you’re not short on choice. Henry,
Campbell, Pires, Seaman, Wiltord, Vieira, Kanu, they all have those
who champion their cause.
But perhaps the most valuable single Gunner, linking Highbury past
with Highbury present, is the double double Dutchman, Dennis Bergkamp,
surviving member of the double team of 1998, when he also picked
up the Footballer of the Year award, going on to be a key player
in last year’s double triumph to boot.
Unusually for the current side, Bergkamp was not an Arsene Wenger
capture but was brought to London by his predecessor Bruce Rioch,
moving from Inter Milan for £7.5million in June 1995, a fee
which looks quite ludicrously cheap given all that he has since
done for the club. Indeed, in many ways, Bergkamp was Arsenal’s
talismanic signing, the man who unwittingly paved the way for what
was ultimately the Wenger revolution.
For when Bergkamp arrived in north London, it was as important a
symbolic gesture as it was a footballing masterstroke. In signing
up the sublimely gifted Dutchman, Arsenal were signalling their
intent to break with the past and a decade where they had won grudging
admiration rather than glowing praise for their achievements, as
they accumulated silverware from the more typically robust English
virtues that were the foundation stones of George Graham’s
approach to the game.
The arrival of Bergkamp told the rest of the country that Arsenal
were now going to become a cosmopolitan, continental European side,
ready to employ a more expansive attacking style, ready to take
on Manchester United at their own game, giving them their own Eric
Cantona, their own playmaker able to change the course of a game
in an instant.
English fans already knew plenty about Bergkamp when he arrived
in England having seen him at his best with Ajax, Inter and the
Dutch national side for whom he was long a pivotal figure before
his retirement from the international stage. Over the years in England,
he has done nothing but enhance his reputation as a footballer of
sublime touch, technique and vision. In many ways, he’s the
archetypal modern European footballer, economical and unobtrusive
in style at times, seemingly almost dormant before suddenly bursting
into life with a devastating moment of quality – a defence
splitting pass, a drilled shot past a despairing goalkeeper, a dazzling
piece of close control.
Given his aversion to air travel, perhaps Bergkamp’s biggest
contribution to Arsenal has been on the domestic rather than the
European stage, but it’s testimony to his importance to his
club that Wenger has repeatedly looked to find ways of making Bergkamp
available for their continental jaunts, even with the rich crop
of talent from which he can choose.
It’s perfectly understandable that Wenger is so desperate to
make Bergkamp available, for he offers the Gunners a cerebral alternative
to the incendiary brilliance of Henry or the explosive pace of Wiltord
as the Dutch star becomes an ever more cunning exponent of space
and the killer ball that unlocks even the most tightly locked of
European defences.
Bergkamp himself is desperately chasing European glory, telling
Arsenal.com, "I think this is my best chance of winning the
Champions League because you never know what will happen next year,
not only for yourself but for the team. You never know how long
you can keep a unique team like this together. It is the best I've
played in, and we've proved that with the way we started this season.
It would be special to win the Champions League with Arsenal because
I feel a part of the club after being here for so long."
Like all of us, Bergkamp is prey to the years and in recent seasons,
he has had more than a few problems with injury, but every time
he’s been written off, he has bounced back all the stronger
and remains one of the jewels in the English game. Little wonder
that Wenger is keen for him to play out the rest of his career at
Highbury, Bergkamp issuing a statement a few weeks ago to insist
that rumours of his imminent retirement have been exaggerated.
He’s rarely been out of the papers either, recently registering
his 100th goal for the Gunners and not sweating on the prospect
of an FA charge after allegedly elbowing Lee Bowyer at the weekend.
Hardly cause for an FA charge, more grounds for a medal I’d
have thought.
Berrgkamp’s assessment of his time at Highbury is characteristically
modest, saying only that, "I hope I have given something to
Arsenal and made them a better team." As understatements go,
that’s one of the best, for he has illuminated not only his
side, but the Premiership in general.
If Dennis the Menace remains in England, lovers of the beautiful
game can anticipate many more moments of magic to store away in
the memory banks. Lovers of Arsenal can anticipate plenty more silverware.
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