Stillness and Speed: My Story (16 page)

Dennis takes up the story. ‘What I remember most is that I didn’t want to take any risk. It sounds a bit strange, because it’s a difficult technique to hit a volley from a
cross like that. You’ve got to get the timing right. How can I explain it? If you’d scored a hat-trick already, you’d try to hit it in the top right corner, or get a little bit of
swerve on it, maybe, or hit it a little bit faster. You’d try to . . .
add
something, be more creative. But now the idea was: “Be solid, just get the foot against the ball and
see what happens.” Just get it on target. The ball can easily end up in the goalkeeper’s hands, but that’s better than hitting it into the crowd. So, no risk whatsoever! Do it
safe! And, yeah, it was far enough in the corner that the goalkeeper couldn’t reach it. I did hit it solid. It had pace. It was good enough.’

As Highbury erupts, Dennis, in an ecstasy of relief, wheels away, arms spread and leaps in celebration. ‘The way the crowd reacted was more than I could have imagined. I wouldn’t say
it was typically English but the way they celebrated, all jumping up and hands in the air together . . . it’s not explosive like that anywhere else. That moment was the start of the
relationship with the Arsenal crowd. They’d been patient with me, and I didn’t know why because they didn’t know me. Maybe they saw something in the games leading up to that goal?
It must be something like that because I seemed to have built up a lot of credit very quickly. Maybe they saw some moves or a pass, an assist or whatever. But they didn’t know me. They
didn’t know my character and now they were giving this! The warmth was incredible. I’d only been here for one and a half months. After that goal we never lost that
relationship.’

Then you scored again. And the second was even better.

‘Well, that was like, “OK, now we start!” It felt like fifty kilos had been taken off my back [after that first goal]. I got the ball just over the halfway line, and I saw a
lot of space in front of me. My whole game in England was filled with space. Between the lines, of course, I could play with that and create my own space with little tricks. So I have the ball.
First I go to the right of the defender to get in the cross. I’m planning to cross the ball, then I realise, “I’ve got enough space to get forward here and shoot.” First, I
have to get the defender out of the way, so I take him across. I’ve never been a dribbler. It’s just not my thing. So I shift to my left and then turn right. You cut into the space on
the right, because you can see you have to make that move to get the shot. It’s still thirty yards out but you’re so confident. You know as well that when you take the ball from the
left to the right, the ball will be rolling when you meet it. That’s going to give it some speed, so when you hit it, in the end it will turn. It will curve to the right. I mean it starts
left and then turns to the right, because of that little move you’ve done with the ball just before you hit it. So you don’t aim for the corner of the goal but in the middle. You have
to start it left . . . it’s something you’ve calculated many times before, so now you know what to do, though you don’t know how much exactly it’s going to swerve. Then it
goes in like that, away from the goalkeeper . . . and there’s that explosion of the crowd again! That was so nice. When I look at that goal now, it seems to go much faster than I thought. In
my mind everything happened slower. But certainly, from that day everything changed.’

8

S
OMEWHERE IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE
where Bruce Rioch was not sacked after his one rather successful season as Arsenal
manager, the following things happened: Arsenal’s new boss built on the signings of David Platt and Dennis Bergkamp to create an attacking team which changed the club’s reputation for
boring football. Ian Wright was ‘offloaded’ to Glenn Hoddle’s Chelsea in late 1996, but his replacement Alan Shearer turned out to be a classic centre-forward in the Highbury
tradition of Ted Drake and Tommy Lawton, benefiting from the presence of Bergkamp, new Portuguese midfielder Rui Costa and winger Marc Overmars, bought from Ajax to provide ‘ammunition’
from the wing. Arsenal’s surprising blend of English and continental talent won plenty of admirers. Meanwhile, Manchester United cemented their status as the most successful team in English
history, winning the league in 1998, 2002 and 2004.

Actually, Rioch might have done worse – or much better. ‘Bruce could quite easily have been where Arsene Wenger is today,’ says Tony Adams. ‘Quite easily. Different time,
different place. But I really let him down. And so did Merse [Paul Merson]. And I’ve said sorry to Bruce. But I was spending more time in the pub than I was on the training ground. He might
have been a success, but he didn’t have a chance when the club captain wasn’t there. And there were problems with other players. But he loved Dennis. I could see that.’

We’ll never know, because just before the 1996-97 season the former Scotland captain and Bolton manager was summoned to a meeting at Highbury. Rioch, now retired and living in Cornwall,
had realised early in his time at Arsenal that the board saw him as a stopgap appointment. He recalls: ‘The chairman [Peter Hill-Wood] came back from Augusta, I believe it was, and I was
called into the office with him and [managing director] Ken Friar and they just said “we are parting company”. I have to say it wasn’t a surprise. I was aware from a few
conversations I’d had that Arsenal had been talking with Arsene Wenger. I knew that was in the background.’

Famously, Rioch fell out with Ian Wright, the club’s leading goal-scorer. After a pre-season match at St Albans, he’d called Wright a ‘Champagne Charlie’ in the dressing
room and the relationship never recovered. Rioch: ‘If I’m being absolutely honest, you could say: “Maybe you made a bit of a mistake there, maybe you didn’t have to chew him
out in front of the group.” I wouldn’t blame Ian at all. I would apportion more blame to myself, to say: “You didn’t act in the right manner probably on that
occasion.”’

He was also struggling to cope with psychologically troubled players. ‘There were a few who were having a lot of difficulties. When we went away on our first pre-season trip to Sweden, we
had to take counsellors with us, for the players. They had to share rooms with the players. And I can remember one of the counsellors saying to me: “There are greater problems at this club
than you realise.” I won’t say who, but I’ve had players come to me before training in tears because they’re thinking of committing suicide. And I hadn’t trained to be
a counsellor! I think I did use the phrase: “I’ve spent more time at this club being like Marjorie Proops than I have being a manager.” Several lads were absolutely incredible but
some had problems. I’m not saying that these were bad lads, or bad people. Not at all. I’m just saying they had problems.’

Yet in many ways Rioch had done well. David Dein had brought Dennis Bergkamp to the club. David Platt, captain of England, had signed from Sampdoria and Arsenal began to open up, the team
naturally playing more of a passing game than they had in the dog days of George Graham. In 1995 the club finished twelfth. Under Rioch the following year they finished fifth and qualified for the
UEFA Cup.

‘When you follow a man like George Graham, of course you want to keep some of the things as they were,’ he says. ‘So we kept the coaching staff but I also wanted to add my
style and my players. Dennis and David Platt were the first but there were others I had identified like Rui Costa, Marc Overmars, Alan Shearer . . . The coaching staff – Steve Burtenshaw,
Stewart Houston, Geordie Armstrong and Pat Rice – all said: “Don’t touch the back line, but we are short of goals in the team.” Alan Smith had retired, Kevin Campbell and
Stefan Schwarz had left the club and when I’d brought my Bolton team to Arsenal in the Cup [in 1994] – we beat them three-one – I’d seen more creativity was
needed.’

Dennis was unaware of Rioch’s plans to sell Wright and bring in Shearer and Rui Costa. ‘I never ever heard about that! I only know how it did happen. Alan Shearer was a big player at
the time, of course. But Ian Wright was really big, too. So I really don’t know how it might have worked. Someone else was pulling the strings and I’m not sure the idea of buying these
players was taken seriously. I think Bruce was thinking of attacking football in the British style, with a striker in front and maybe one behind. But somehow the way that I was playing I think it
would have ended up with me more as a shadow striker.’ Rioch’s ability to buy players was limited because, following the George Graham bung scandal, the manager had little control over
transfer business, which was handled by Dein and Friar.

Yet the Highbury crowd enjoyed the more attractive football Arsenal began to play. Is it too much to see in that year the beginnings of the revolution that ended with Wenger’s Invincibles?
Rioch himself is both modest and generous: ‘Well, a little bit, but it was just a foot on the ladder. When I went to Arsenal I thought to myself: “I am with one of the great clubs of
British football, so I’ve got to make them a great football team, which means not just winning a cup or trophy but making people remember.” That was my philosophy and that’s what
I was looking for. But most certainly Arsene Wenger . . . when you look at the team he eventually put together, everybody who has been involved in football over the last fifteen years will look at
that team and say: wow! I think we would all agree that team was stunning. I mean just absolutely
stunning
. That to me is what you work for.’

Ian Wright, who disliked Rioch so much he had handed in a transfer request, was delighted to see him leave. But Dennis was surprised, angry and upset. ‘I liked Bruce and got on well with
him. People have different thoughts about people, which is normal. But when I came to England he was my coach and he helped me a lot and we just got on. In that season [1995-96] everything was
changing for me. I was transforming my game, my mind, my private life. My wife got pregnant for the first time and we were staying in a hotel for six months. I’m in a new country. I’m
getting back from a difficult situation where I felt
handcuffed
in Italy and couldn’t express myself. So I’ve come to England and it’s all fantastic. I thought: “I
can open up again!” But I needed a year, maybe two years.’

Bruce supported him, encouraged him to play his game and taught him much about British football. ‘Good things happened for me in that first year and he was part of it. He was my coach and
he helped me to get used to England and the English game and English life . . . If you were to ask me was he the best coach I ever had, well I think Bruce would say as well that’s not really
important. He was there at the time. In the end everyone moved on and I’ve only got good memories of him.

‘For me, Bruce was a good guy, very positive, nice. So for me it came as a total surprise he was sacked after pre-season in the second year. But it was also strange for me. It’s very
difficult to explain. You come from a different country and you have a good year and you want to build on that. I was really ready to go [on] and suddenly the manager gets sacked without any
warning! Without any reason that I could see. At that time it probably was the right decision [for the club], but only a few people will know why it happened like that. Especially after getting
European football, it was really a shock and I was angry as well because I thought: “This is Italy all over again.” The club makes promises and then they go the other way . . .
‘

David Dein didn’t reassure you?

‘He did. I think he said: “Stay calm, just stay with us, good things will happen, changes will be made . . . and somehow that was enough for me to stay. At the time I said it
[leaving Arsenal] crossed my mind because I was really angry. But after two years at Inter I’d had only one year in England which I really loved, and leaving Arsenal would have meant going to
a different club in England and that’s not me. I needed some time to get settled and I didn’t want to take that gamble. And of course very soon we heard that Arsene would come. It was a
little bit of a secret in those few weeks but there were rumours and I knew about him at Monaco playing attacking football with four-three-three like Ajax. So I did stay calm.’

Bruce was obviously very hurt at the time. How do you see it now?

‘I felt very sorry at the time. I didn’t know what was happening. I visited him afterwards with my wife, not for “closure” or anything but just like “what
happened?” and “how do you feel?” That sort of stuff. I think coming to Arsenal was a good step for Bruce. A good learning time for him, but leaving after one year . . . I think
if he he’d had two or three years it would have been a good step up in his career and he could have gone to a bigger club afterwards.’

Rioch himself says he has no regrets: ‘When I look back I enjoyed the opportunity of going to Arsenal. I enjoyed the opportunity to work with the players and to have someone of the calibre
of Dennis on board was just fantastic. It was great.’

9

‘S
OMETHING
I
OFTEN
wonder about is: what were Arsenal thinking? Before I came it was Boring,
Boring Arsenal. Then they buy me and David Platt. What’s their idea? What did they have in mind for the future?’

Surely someone told you, Dennis?

‘No. David Dein and Bruce Rioch said things like “We have big plans” and “We want to move forward” and all that sort of stuff. But everybody says that, so I thought
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” I didn’t take it seriously. But it wasn’t like when Abramovich came to Chelsea and straightaway it was: “I want to win the Premier League and
the Champions League, and these are the players I want . . .
tack, tack, tack, tack
. . . and here’s the money and if it doesn’t work that way we’ll get the youth players
and do it another way . . .” I mean, there was a big picture from the start. When Sheikh Mansour went to Man City, I’m sure it was like: “Here’s the ten-year plan.” So
what I’d like to know is: what was the bigger picture of Arsenal at that time? Was Rioch there just for one year? Was that already set up? Were Arsenal already thinking they wanted to get in
foreign players and a foreign coach, change the playing style? What was the plan?’