Dennis Bergkamp divides opinion. Many believe him to be the greatest Arsenal player ever while others believe he was overrated. If you belong to the latter, then you haven't watched him enough. Pele voted him as one of the top 100 footballers alive and he finished third in the world player of the year award twice. To this day, Bergkamp is the only Dutchman elected into the English football hall of fame. Bruce Rioch's greatest impact at Arsenal was signing Dennis Bergkamp, who was an established star. Since then, the only transfer to raise so much excitement was the arrival of Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid last Summer. However, it was under Arsene Wenger that Bergkamp enjoyed his best years and became a legend at the football club. He won two doubles and was part of the unbeatable 2004 Arsenal side. He also won a further two more FA Cups and another Premier League medal. During his career he scored over 100 goals for Arsenal in over 400 appearances. However, his ability is often overlooked as it wasn't always as clear as the likes of Thierry Henry- who owes many of his goals to the Dutchman as he set them up on a plate. Wenger utilised Bergkamp to his best and got the maximum out of him, creating the Dutchman into a legend at Arsenal. Despite lots of competition, Bergkamp was still a key part of the Arsenal side throughout his entire career and was thanked by the club with a testimonial match- the first ever game at the Emirates stadium.
Josh has had work featured in the Evening Gazette and on Newcastle United website. He is a Multimedia Journalism student at Teesside University and runs a successful sports blog. He also enjoys films, comics and TV, writing about anything he can. Josh has recently started writing his first of what he hopes will be many books.
