A god gets a statue! Bergkamp returns!!

1^st Commandment:

Thou shall not worship any other God but me for I am a jealous God.

Now I have to make sure I see a priest to confess all my sins before I depart the earth for I am an ardent Dennis Bergkamp worshipper. By miles my favourite Arsenal player ever and most likely would ever be. Dennis has so many names, from the pass master, the iceman, non-flying Dutchman due to his being averse to flying and some people call him god.

There was something about Dennis that no other player had at the time, technical ability to do only the perfect things, from his passes, to assists and to the way he scored his goals he only knew how to do everything beautifully. Reading ‘stillness and speed’ Bergkamp’s autobiography from the very first chapters you would get  a feeling as to why he did everything to precision, as a young boy in Holland Dennis played with his brother and training with a football and hitting it against a wall, Dennis would keep hitting one spot to help him develop perfection.

Words used by Bergkamp to describe his early days of football really do let you into what made him into such an outstanding footballer, recommend ‘Stillness and Speed’ to any Arsenal who hasn’t read it by now.  Dennis wasn’t actually signed by Wenger but by Bruce Rioch and even then he broke the clubs transfer record to get him, but it was Wenger’s arrival to the club that really took advantage of the Dutchman abilities turning him to the fulcrum of his Arsenal side that went on to win many trophies.

Few quotes from players about Dennis

“Dennis is the best player I have ever played with as a partner. It is a dream for a striker to have him in the team with you.” — Thierry Henry

“If Ryan Giggs is worth 20 million, Dennis Bergkamp is worth 100 million.” — Marco van Basten.

“He’s the messiah. We told him to get us into Europe when he joined and that’s exactly what he did.” — Ian Wright on his former strike partner

‘Nobody will ever forget Dennis Bergkamp- and everybody who will play in this position for years to come will be compared to Dennis Bergkamp’, As much as Henry is a top target striker, Dennis Bergkamp as a provider was unique. –   Wenger

Flying Dutchman

It’s just fitting to have a player of his caliber get a statue at the Emirates, a ground that was opened by with a friendly game between Arsenal and Ajax (Dennis’ first club) and even at that game Bergkamp kicked off the match with his father, Wim, and son, Mitchel and his four children acted as the match’s mascots. How many players get that kind of treatment really, surely Arsene and Arsenal knew what Dennis brought to the club.

In honour of the clubs unveiling of the Dennis Bergkamp Statue today we are giving out two copies of ‘Stillness and Speed’ to Arsenal fans who get the following questions right. We have previously given out a copy on the site when the book was released so @dozieben2 the previous winner you are excused from this competition.

1. Predict the score of Arsenal vs Sunderland game
2. When did Dennis Bergkamp Day take place at Arsenal
3. How many goals did Dennis score for Arsenal?

You can send n your entries on the comments section beneath, on Twitter @canoncrested or via email to competitions@canoncrested.com . The first two correct answers would receive the book. Trust me, it’s well worth a read, not just about Dennis because he talks a lot about football coaching, how things happen in the dressing room, dieting for players, relationships in the Dutch National Team and his time in Italy which really does make for an interesting read. You can find it on www.amazon.com

Just a little on the Sunderland game today then, on the back of the defeat against Bayern and the penalty miss by Ozil he has come in for a lot of criticisms by the media and fans alike and he has subsequently apologized on social media for the miss and Wenger has come out to defend him and state that he still feels sore about the miss and made a comparison to Dennis who too missed a penalty for Arsenal in a UEFA Cup semi-final and never took one after that.

I’ve always seen Ozil as our new Dennis since his arrival, many things the players have in common. Half of their football is in their heads, their main desire is to bring out the best out of other players with excellent passes and assists, they both came to Arsenal as experienced internationals, both play in similar positions, both have the ability to orchestrate the flow of our game, I believe the term used by Tony Adams to describe Dennis which can also be applied to Ozil is ‘Technical Leader’

Ozil might be suffering now but we all know he will come good and hopefully soon. There is a chant organized today to spur Ozil on and those of us watching at home would love to see how it gets along. If you know the Queen song , WE WILL WE WILL ROCK YOU!!! Then I guess you can go with the words ME-SUT ME-SUT OZIL!!! That’s how it goes, if you don’t know the song, then just hit this video beneath and you’ll get a drift of how it should go.

Cheers friends. Have a great weekend and we should get back to winning ways today. Remember to send in your answers to win the Dennis Bergkamp book.

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