'Immense' Dennis Bergkamp was ahead of other Arsenal legends, says Nigel Winterburn

EXCLUSIVE: Dennis Bergkamp has topped former Arsenal defender Nigel Winterburn's list of greatest team-mates, with the Dutch legend being labelled "ice cool" and "immense"

Kasra Moradi Senior Sports Journalist

18:59, 03 Jul 2022Updated 19:08, 03 Jul 2022

The Englishman has made 10 assists this season, earning comparisons to Dennis Bergkamp of Arsenal(Image: 1990 The Arsenal Football Club Plc)

Arsenal legend Nigel Winterburn has named Dennis Bergkamp as the best footballer he ever played with.

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The iconic left-back, 58, had the privilege of playing for the Gunners at the peak of their powers from 1987 to 2000, winning three league titles along the way. During that time he featured alongside some of the greatest players the Premier League has ever seen.

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One of those was the ‘Non-flying Dutchman’ Bergkamp, who immediately changed the north London club forever after signing from Inter Milan in 1995. And despite playing alongside several other world class players such as Tony Adams, Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira, Winterburn counts the striker as his most mesmerising team-mate.

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Talking to Bet365 on behalf of Daily Star Sport, Winterburn said: “Bergkamp my word - this guy was just ice cool, cold. Just made the game look so easy.

“You could see that so quickly. The positions he'd take up, the people that he saw around him. The passes that he made, the goals that he scored in games, the chances created - an immense player.

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“Because I'd played with Dennis for so long, I put him down as my all-time greatest player, but Henry is right there alongside him. The only reason he's not at the very top is because I only played with him for a year.

The left-back played alongside Dennis Bergkamp (L) for five years(Image: Getty Images)

“Thierry was a bit different for me, as I was in my last year with the club when he arrived. He took more time to settle in than the others.

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Now Arsenal’s all-time leading goal-scorer, Henry arrived in north London in 1999 with a relatively modest career up until then playing on the wing. But the Frenchman underwent a transformation few could have predicted after being converted into a striker by Arsene Wenger.

He went on to score 226 goals for the Gunners, winning a record four Premier League golden boots in the process. And Winterburn believes the legendary forward could well have been his pick for greatest player if they had played together a little while longer.

Do you think Dennis Bergkamp edges Thierry Henry as the greatest ever Arsenal player? Let us know in the comments section below

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Thierry Henry became the greatest player in English football after Nigel Winterburn left the club(Image: GETTY )

He explained: “From 2000 to 2006, that guy was unplayable. He was the best player in the Premier League by an absolute mile. Before being converted by Wenger, he [had] never played the traditional centre forward role. He was always drifting out to the sides, you'd see him coming in from the left-hand side, edge of the box, scoring goals.

“I'd go back and work at Arsenal at the time, it was a pleasure just to sit down and watch him. You just knew this guy was going to do something, no matter what time within 90 minutes, he was going to do something to bring the supporters off their seats.”

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