mï
[Arsenal'
There has been 11 years of football,
with a lot of success, and during that
time too I have also started a family.
I came here with just my wife Henrita in
1995, and now we have four kids -
Estelte, Mitchel, Yasmin and Saffron.
The time has flown by. I remember the
day I signed so clearly. I was at
Highbury with my wife, having our
photos taken and Steve Braddock, the
groundsman, wouldn't let us on the
pitch! It feels like it was just a matter of
months ago - not 11 years.
The transfer to Arsenal back in 1995
came a bit out of the blue for me, but I
had always planned to play in England at
some stage of my career. My plan was
always to move from Holland to either
Italy or Spain, then on to England before
finishing again at Ajax ideally. I signed for
Inter for four years, but I only had a
couple of years there because I didn't
feel I was improving. So then I wanted to
move to England and straight away the
option of Arsenal came to me. At that
time they were doing very well in Europe,
and so I thought let's try it. Being based
in London was important too, and
looking back now it was a great choice.
The team I came into at Arsenal was
already solid, it had a great defence
and some big players like Tony Adams,
Ian Wright and Paul Merson, so it
wasn't completely into the unknown. It
was an established team, experienced
but still with some years to go to reach
their potential. All of the players were
great to me and helped me settle into
the team.
It didn't take a few weeks, a few months
or a few years even to fall in love with
the place, it happened straight away, it
really did. My wife and I stayed in a
hotel in London for a couple of days
when I signed, and we said to each
other that this feels right - the people,
the atmosphere - everything, it felt like
home straight away.
If you believe in fate, and need any
confirmation that it was the right move for
me, it came the day I signed for the Club.
Completely by chance I bumped into Ian
Wright at a petrol station off the M25 - it
was the first time we had ever met and he
was to be my partner up front for the next
few years. It was incredible.
My family and I have always loved
London, but to be honest experiencing
the theatre, the parks and everything
only came later in our lives. At the
beginning the football was so
important. You get a lot
of spare time in
England because you
just train in the
morning, and have the
rest of the day free.
That was exactly what I
needed at that time
because in Italy it was 9
to 5 every day so it
came as a relief to me. I
felt freer, so I never got
bored with all the spare
time, quite the
opposite, I needed it
after my time in Italy.
But that's not to say I
didn't enjoy training -1 loved it. There are
always elements of training that you don't
enjoy so much - when you are running
without the ball etc. But at the back of
your mind you know that in about 15
minutes you will get to play - you see the
ball lying there and you can't wait to get
at it. So I never got bored of it. I'm really
going to miss that. Football was never a
job for me - it's still a hobby and it always
has been. I always want to be the best,
whether in training or in a game.
We qualified for Europe in my first
season at Highbury, which we were
pleased with, but it was the third
season that we first won trophies.
When I first joined I have to say that I
was never obsessed by winning prizes, I
think that was mainly because although
I knew we had a good team, I also know
there were stronger teams than us in
the league. At the beginning of 1997/98
though, it felt right. I remember in the
very first game of that season, it was
Leeds away, I looked around me and
thought 'yes, we can do it, we could be
champions this year.' I mentioned it to
Wrighty after the game and we kept
that feeling all season.
It's only now that I fully appreciate what
I achieved that season. I was player of
the year, writers' player of the year,
scored the goals, won the 'double' -
now I realise just what we achieved. I
would have been very disappointed had
we not gone on to win trophies that
year, because once you realise you
have the team to do it, you have to fulfil
that potential. As soon as we won those
first trophies everything changed. My
mind was completely different and I
thought now we have to go for
everything - for every single prize,
because we are good enough. That
change went through the Club and the
team as well, we really got going from
