Few foreign imports into the British game have had the impact of Dennis Bergkamp, a sublime talent as Arsenal went toe to toe with Manchester United in one of the Premier League’s first great rivalries.
People often forget it was Brice Rioch who took him to Highbury, not Arsene Wenger, and FourFourTwo sent the man Bergkamp replaced, Alan Smith, to interview him not long after his arrival.
Bergkamp unwittingly pointed to changes that were coming at Arsenal, saying, “We are trying to play better football all the time and it would be good to bring in some players who are used to playing the way we want to play. You have to remember thar we have a lot of older players in the team so you have to start to think of the future.”
There was plenty from the Dutch maestro about the differences between football in his native land, in England and his experiences with Internazionale in Italy. It’s a fascinating read from April 1996 and you can find it here.
