As DennisBergkamp begins his final campaign a natural question to ask is: Where does he rank among the greats of the game? There are a number of ways to look at this, all of them unfair, but what?s the point of being a fan if you can?t spout off, throwing in your two cents? These sorts of exercises are always skewed towards the present day ? did you see Ted Drake play live? But what the hell, here goes?
The first question, and perhaps most dear to Arsenal fans, is where does DB10 rank among the All-Time Arsenal greats? Then, how does he rank against all players of his generation? Finally, where does he stand amongst the All-Time greats of the game?
Dennis is a bit tricky to judge because it?s hard to know what the standards are. Should he be judged as a striker, based primarily on his goal scoring? As a creative midfielder or a deep lying play-maker? He doesn?t really fit neatly into one role. But then again few of the truly great did. What position did Cruyff, Di Stefano or Platini play? Everywhere and anywhere they needed to. So while it?s hard to categorize Bergkamp, that may also be a sign that he was one of those special players. So we?re going to have to use a lot of subjective criteria in gauging his impact and ultimately where he stands.
If you?re going to make an Arsenal All-Time XI surely DB10 is in their, right? But where do you play him? Up front, but Ian Wright, Thierry Henry, Ted Drake and Cliff Bastin all found the net more often. In midfield? Liam Brady and Patrick Vieira might have something to say about that. And yet you get the feeling that as great as all those players are/were, they would be even better with Dennis in the lineup. Not only does Bergkamp make a direct contribution ? he does have more than 100 goals scored for Arsenal, but he also makes those around him better. So for that reason I think you must put him in the starting XI. Perhaps in a spot just behind two strikers and in front of three midfielders.
Now, where would Dennis rank among player of the last, say 20 years? The cold, hard reality is that Dennis hasn?t won a trophy for country or for club (in Europe). That?s a mark against him. But of the clubs who have won the European Cup/Champions League during that time, how many would DB10 have started for? My guess is that a good number of those clubs would have found a place for him.
I think most would agree that he?s been one of the top Premiership players during his 10 years in England. Probably just missing out on an EPL XI.
The final, and certainly most ridiculous question, is where does God rank among the All-Time greats of the game. First, you?ve got to qualify this by agreeing that we can only make this comparison among European players. To throw in South Americans would be really crazy. So, after putting together a scientific, mathematical formula the answer is 87. Or maybe 112. Possibly 140. Or 54. Yeah, there is no way to do this. The UEFA publication, Champions, the official magazine of The Champions League, ranked the top 250 Europeans of All-Time recently and had Dennis at 167. Seemed a little low to me.. Seemed really low when Alan Shearer was ranked 100 places higher at 66. Seemed absolutely ridiculous when Davor Suker was ranked 48! Davor Suker? Jari Litmanen at 33!? Ok, stop it.
In the final analysis, Dennis suffers for not having won a really big trophy, for having skills that are uncategorizable and for not being a flamboyant loud-mouth, like Eric Cantona, who while undeniably great, gets extra points in these sorts of things by being, well, Eric Cantona. Putting aside the fact that he doesn?t fly, I can?t imagine too many teams, now or in the past, that wouldn?t want Bergkamp in their side. For what it?s worth, I think it will be a very long time before I see a player significantly better than Dennis has been on his day. He?s capable of destroying other teams with his scoring and his passing. His vision and ability to read the mathematics of the game ? the geometry of movement of both the ball and players ? is on par with anyone who has ever played the game. It?s not often that you can say you saw one of the truly greats. Arsenal fans can.
11 Responses to “Dennis Bergkamp - An analysis on his place in history”
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August 24th, 2004 at 8:25 am
Fair shout, Rick. It’s very hard to classify DB10, and doubly hard to figure where he rates overall.
One knock against Dennis has always been that he doesn’t have the “killer instinct” the truly fantastic strikers have, something he freely admitted in “Brilliant Orange”.
I believe, though, that Dennis does have a winners medal from the 1988 European Championships, does he not? I thought he, at 17, was on that Dutch side.
August 24th, 2004 at 8:31 am
Oops. No Dennis in ‘88. Carry on.
August 24th, 2004 at 8:42 am
But if you read the article on Dennis in today’s footballunlimited.co.uk you’ll see he did win two UEFA Cups and a Cup Winners’ Cup.
By the way, I wrote my piece late last week, well before the above mentioned one.
August 24th, 2004 at 9:49 am
It’s difficult to compare players of the past and present, which is something I agree with what Love_G pointed out previously.
Bergkamp may not be a big trophy winner (No World Cup, Euro. Championship, nor CL medal in his collection), may not be the best strikers, may not be the top class all around superstars… nevertheless, Dennis does has his own share of unique quality which probably stands him among one of the best in the football history.
Personally, I always compare Bergkamp to Michel Platini. Both are great passer with great vision, and both are wonderful elegant footballers.
IMO, Bergkamp is one of the most elegant footballers (if not the best) in the history of football. He just simply has such a great soft touch and great flair. Watching his ball control itself is an enjoyment! If football is a girl, than Dennis must be the best “lover”!
And Bergkamp is also one of the greatest passer of all time. Not only with accuracy, but with a great vision. As far as this particular attribute goes, I can only think of 3 other players who share the same quality as Bergkamp - Platini, Glenn Hoddle, and Zico. And no more.
August 24th, 2004 at 10:42 am
My Highbury heroes were SuperMac and Chippy Brady in the late Seventies, then along comes Rocky, Tony Adams and big Alan Smith & the GG defence, then Wrighty and then we get Bergkamp! His first Arsenal goals at Highbury against Southampton, the goal for Holland at France 98, the hatrick against Liecester City, the best F.A. Cup Goal ever at Newcastle………………….
I rate hime as the best Arsenal player ever, and if he can get to Turkey for this season’s Champions League Final he will top everything! (Although, TH might become the bestever player by the end of his Arsenal career.)
August 24th, 2004 at 12:14 pm
Spot on. My eldest was almost named Liam. If you look at the list of Junior Gunners there is a disproportinate amount of kids called Liam. Maybe in years to come it will be Thierry. My mates kid has it as his middle name.
August 24th, 2004 at 4:59 pm
I wish I could add something really unique and insightful, but I can’t. All I will say is that the thing I love the most about Dennis is that he seems to be getting better the closer he gets to the end of his career. *THAT* is a very rare quality indeed! Almost singular. My heart - my true romantic heart - hopes he will play at least once in the new stadium.
August 24th, 2004 at 10:19 pm
No doubt, putting aside all that medals talk, you will have to wait for another 10 yrs or so for another player like DB to come around. His out of this world skill apart, he is a pure genius. You can train your players to be stronger, faster, or improve their skill. but you defintely can’t do anything with their footballing brain. If it’s not there, then that’s it. To DB, football match is like a chessboard, where he like to think of his moves as part of a string of well-planned movement to checkmate his opponent. He plan ahead everything in his ultra fast brain processor. Too bad not every player can read his mind sometimes. He may not be always that lethal and effective throughout his 10 yrs journey with us, but I think sometimes indeed genius don’t get along with consistency really well. I doubt he willl want to pursue a coaching career, but I really hope Arsenal can retain him in one way or another. His knowledge and his way of analyzing the game is among the best. I was not surprised when he said that is 1 thing van persie keep asking him about.
And watching how angry he was when we were behind in the Boro game, you can tell this guy just take so much pride for being Arsenal’s captain. He just loves this club.
August 25th, 2004 at 11:48 am
i really think that dennis should be our captain for the rest of the season. there is something magical when he is captain because he is the oldest and it looks like he is the father of the team and everybody looks up to him especially jose and cesc when things go wrong. and becuase it is his last season i think it would be right becuase it will sought of show him how wenger feels about him after 10 years of service to the club. i also think that at the end of the year, AW should make him a player/coach. becuase we dont want to lose the DB10 TOUCH. do we?
August 26th, 2004 at 9:38 am
As a lifetime Gooner since 1946 I feel deprived I never saw Dennis in person. Having lived in the USA since 1959 I have not had the opportunity to see many of the modern day stars. So I will not compare DB with any one. Only football ignorants could watch him & not know he is a genius in his sport. Of the many great players he Ranks with them an insperation not only to young players but lovers of the game also.THANK YOU DENNIS.
August 26th, 2004 at 11:53 am
He HAS to be rated as one of the very best players ever to have worn an Arsenal shirt. Before he came to us he had a, relatively, successful time in Italy and also in Holland. As others have said he is the embodiment of Cruijff’s belief that “Football is a game you play with your brain”. It is his incredible technique which combined with his brain which makes him so special.
It is not his fault that he has not had other players in the Holland team who are at the same sublime level as he is but I don’t think they failed to qualify for any international final tournament during the time he played international football and he was (equal) highest scorer until recently when Patrick Kluivert overtook him which is not bad given our reservations about whether he is a striker or a mid-fielder!
Lets just hope he is set to rectify the only gap in his CV this summer
To me he is simply (as it says on the back of my shirt)
GOD 10