Dennis Bergkamp helped me play Arsenal prank - it backfired big time after contract decision

Arsenal legend Ray Parlour claims he and Dennis Bergkamp once played a prank on teammate Martin Keown which resulted in the signing of Igors Stepanovs to a four-year contract.

Parlour has claimed how Keown was always worried about losing his spot in the team, so would often downplay the skills of any new centre-back trialists. One such trialist was former Latvia international Stepanovs, who tried out for Arsenal in 2000 when he was 24. According to Parlour, Stepanovs wasn't up to the standard required to play for the club.

Seeing an opportunity to tease Keown, Parlour and Bergkamp decided to praise Stepanovs during his trial game. However, their joke backfired when they found out the following week that Arsene Wenger had signed Stepanovs to a long-term deal, clearly influenced by his players' apparent approval, reports The Express.

«Martin Keown was always worried about people coming in to steal his position. If we had a centre-half on trial, Martin would say he was useless,» Parlour told talkSPORT.

«This big guy from Latvia, Igors Stepanovs, turned up. He was a unit, but seriously, he was not up to standard. A few of us were on the bench watching as he played in this trial game. Stepanovs is out there and every single pass he made, the boys started applauding, just because we knew Martin would be getting a bit steamed up by it.»

«Dennis Bergkamp was sitting behind Arsene and kept doling out these compliments about this defender 'Great header! Unbelievable tackle! ' Igors kicked this one ball 20 yards away from where it was meant to go but it still went to one of our players so we all stood up clapping. Martin's muttering: 'He's not that good.' He started to point out where he missed a tackle or a header.»

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