[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright]
Dennis Bergkamp? Really?
David Seaman was definitely the best goalie in England- and arguably the best in the world- during his career. Can you honestly say that Bergkamp was the best striker in England? He’s not among the top 20 Premiership scorers.
*to take nothing away from the astounding bicycle kick goal he pulled off while still playing for Inter
[/QUOTE]
What Deadbadger said. Without wishing to derail this thread too much, Bergkamp’s goals were incredible, but his assists were legendary.
Put it this way, any time a “Greatest Arsenal Line-up” is debated in a pub, there will always be some argument about whether Thierry Henry should be up front - after all, what about Ian Wright? What about Ted Drake?
No-one will ever argue about who should play alongside them.
Bergkamp’s touch was incredible, and his ability to put the ball in the back of the net was brilliant - don’t forget that he’s the only man ever to come 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the “Goal of the Month” award in the same month (all 3 goals he scored against Leicester in the same game), but he was always more of a playmaker than a striker.
A few years back, by pure chance, i was lucky enough to spend a lazy hour or so chatting shit with the man himself. He was modest, quiet and funny - aware (and proud) of his talent, but obviously both slightly amused and slightly embarrased by it at the same time.
I don’t remember much of what we talked about - it was general Sunday-afternoon man-chat, with a healthy dose of random footballing chatter thrown in. I got the impression that he didn’t really want to talk about himself or his goals so i didn’t push the subject.
At one point however, i made some random comment about how, at school, i never enjoyed playing up front. I was happiest as an attacking midfielder, i explained to him because - stupid as it must sound to a forward like him - i didn’t enjoy scoring, but i loved passing.
With that he just lit up completely.
“You understand it!” He said. “It is the creation that is the magic! Yes?! That is the beautiful thing!”
Cue twenty minutes of talking about nothing apart from passing and crossing. He talked about techniques, spotting runs, watching how defenders position themselves and gave me some tips on how to learn how a particular defender plays - how you should test them and figure out their “instinctive” reactions to sudden passes (do they try to slide and intercept? stick a leg up? Or out?) and how to use that against them. He demonstrated several of his favourite assists through the medium of peanuts, beef hula-hoops and an empty crisp packet, telling me what had happened at each point, what had gone through his mind (and always praising the finish/vision of whoever had received the ball). Finally, he talked me through that '98 World Cup Wondergoal - except it wasn’t him that was the subject - it was Frank DeBoer’s pass.
“I put it in the net” he said dismissively, “Frank did the work.”
In that brief period i learnt more about football - and the way the man himself worked and thought - than i ever did before or have done since.
So yeah - a goal machine he was most certainly not. But for every wonder-goal Bergkamp scored, he created five.
Hijack over. We may now resume our normal Euro chatter. 
