'Iceman' Dennis Bergkamp was Johan Cruyff's model footballer, Thierry Henry's greatest ever teammate, and played like a 'helicopter' with a 'nasty streak'
The best superlatives are reserved for the greatest players, words like 'genius' and 'perfect'.
Dennis Bergkamp was all those things are and more, so much that it is often hard to find the rights words to describe him.
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News of the non-flying Dutchman returning to Arsenal as a coach has triggered a flood of nostalgia for Gunners fans.
Bergkamp is one of the most magical players ever to wear the shirt - somehow his touch, vision and skill was just better than everybody around him.
Only he could do a lot of the things he did.
There's a reason Bergkamp has a statue outside the Emirates: his best moments will also be immortalised in the memories of Arsenal fans.
But don't take our word for it, here's what some of the biggest names from Dutch football and Arsenal history had to say about the great man.
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Johan Cruyff
Modern football is largely played in Cruyff's image, with the likes of Man City and Barcelona achieving recent success with the 'total football' philosophy made famous by Holland in the 1970s.
And if the late Dutchman had to pick a 'total footballer', it would've been Bergkamp. We're not sure there is much higher praise than that.
He once said: "If you think about the word ‘footballer’, you have to have something in mind.
Laura Woods says appointing Dennis Bergkamp as assistant coach will instantly make Arsenal respected again"It is not the definition of a player – you do not publish a picture of Pele in the dictionary and say ‘this is the footballer’, he would just be a representation of the word. The form, the shape of the idea.
"They will accuse me of short-sightedness, but if I think about a guitarist, I see Keith Richards; if I think about a painter, Johannes Vermeer.
"But if someone were to wake me up and ask me ‘footballer’, I tend to see Dennis Bergkamp. He looks like a footballer to me."
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Patrick Vieira
The Frenchman was the Gunners' captain for most of Bergkamp's time at the club, most memorably during the 'Invincibles' campaign of 2003/04.
Although gifted himself, Vieira always knew his teammate was the real leader when it came to technical inspiration.
"Our technical leader, the one who would bring the small magic that would help us win something," he once said.
“To make his kind of passes you have to like things to be perfect.”
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Sol Campbell
Another man who played alongside Bergkamp in that 'Invicibles' team, Campbell gives insight into why the Dutchman has his famous nickname.
“The Iceman was a tremendous player. He was strong and quick and had a bit of a nasty streak about him," he once said.
"However, he was a gentleman. We all used to go for it in training and he was great. You need players like that.
"He could link people into play and could score goals. He was a top professional and you learn from those guys.”
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Perry Groves
People often talk about footballers having eyes in the back of their heads, but for talkSPORT host and former Arsenal star Groves, Bergkamp was more like a helicopter.
He once said: "I describe him as someone who played football like he was in a helicopter. When he had the ball, he could see everything around him.
"The game is going at 120mph but he was able to detach himself from that and know what’s going on around him.
"He saw the whole picture. He had a nasty streak about him too, he could look after himself."
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Ian Wright
Bergkamp's two main strike partners at Arsenal, Wright and Thierry Henry, are the Gunners' top two leading goalscorers of all time.
Coincidence? Wright thinks not.
"An amazing player with sublime skill; comfortably the best I’ve played with.
"Not only did he score brilliant goals, but when he played, those around him scored more.”
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Thierry Henry
Wright's sentiments have been echoed by the great Henry, who played with some real legends at both Arsenal and Barcelona, but none were better than Bergkamp.
He once said: “I have always said Dennis Bergkamp will remain the best partner I have ever had. He is a dream for a striker.
"The most important thing is the team. That is why I admire Dennis.
"I have always said he is the best guy that I have played with. Sometimes you have players who do not have to talk, you just have to watch them – and that is the case with Dennis.
"If you are in the game, on the bench or watching on TV, you want to learn then Dennis Bergkamp, with the way he can kill a team with one pass, is just amazing. He will sometimes do things out of nowhere.”
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Paul Merson
Merson, the former Arsenal star, goes one step further and claims Bergkamp is the greatest player ever to wear the Arsenal shirt.
Shkodran Mustafi will probably have something to say about that.
“I honestly didn’t think a professional player could be that good," Merson once said.
“He’s the best I’ve ever played with by a long, long way. I can’t talk high enough of the bloke – he was absolutely phenomenal.
"I think he’s the greatest Arsenal player of all time. You talk to Thierry or Ian Wright and they can’t speak highly enough of the man.”
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Arsene Wenger
Wenger never tired of talking about Bergkamp's genius, but here is our favourite quote from the Frenchman about one of his greatest students.
He said: “When you have a player like that as a coach, you do not tell him how to play football, you just try to fit him into the team in the way which allows him to express his talent to the maximum potential.
"He was always a striker, yet not a striker – a midfielder yet not a midfielder, so I always felt that the second striker position was his natural position.
"He was at ease there, he knew when to drop off, and he could just smell out the game.
"He had instinct and super intelligence. As well as his talent, he had super, super intelligence."
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