Arsène Wenger
I was very lucky to find Dennis Bergkamp already in the squad when I arrived
at Arsenal. You do not find a player like that everywhere you go. It was a
blessing, a gift when I arrived.
"THERE'S ONLY ONE DENNIS BERGKAMP, ONE DENNIS BERGKAMP,
I knew of his class before I arrived
of course. I remember playing
against Inter as manager of Monaco
when he was there, and I saw him
as a young player at Ajax too, but
you only really find out about a
player when you work with him
every day.
A lot has been said about Dennis
over the years; about his class,
about his intelligence - his
remarkable intelligence - about his
vision, basically you can never say
enough about the player. But the
one thing which is a real example
for youngsters is that Dennis
Bergkamp, and I have worked with
him for ten years don't forget, until
the last minute of his final training
session, he did not lose his
concentration or dedication for one
minute. For me that is more
remarkable than anything else.
Dennis was obviously born with a
great talent, and then developed it,
but what I respect more was that
every single day of his career, for 20
years, until the last minute, he
never made a pass in training
without thinking about it, or without
putting every part of his brain into
it. That's something that I consider
virtually impossible to do, such is
the level of dedication needed, but
he did it, and that's what made him
not only a super-talented player, but
a remarkable player who always
had 100 per cent concentration
throughout every session.
That is a dream for a manager
because I have seen many talented
players, and some average players,
give only 50 per cent concentration
in training.
In England, you have a phrase that
Dennis was always a pleasure to
watch. Well let me tell you that
behind that pleasure for the viewer,
was a great deal of dedication and
every
single day of
his career, for
20 years, until
the last
minute, he
never made a
pass in training
without
thinking about
it...M
