I convinced Arsenal legend to join Gunners after record Chelsea transfer collapsed

Arsenal legend Dennis Bergkamp became a club legend throughout his 11 years with the Gunners. Bergkamp won three league titles and four FA Cups during his time at Highbury but was close to never signing for the club.

The Dutch forward had struggled during a short spell with Inter Milan and hoped that a move to Englan would revitalise his career. Instead of Arsenal, though, it was Chelsea that initially agreed a £7.5m fee for Bergkamp. The striker travelled to England with the intentions of signing for the Blues, who were then managed by Glenn Hoddle.

The agent who brokered Bergkamp’s move to Arsenal, Jerome Anderson, told talkSPORT: “Dennis’ hero as a young man growing up was Glenn Hoddle. As a young man he loved wearing the no.10 shirt, finally, having suffered a difficult time in Italy, he decided that he’d like to come and play in England.

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“Dennis’ situation was this, he had agreed, and we had all agreed that he would sign for Chelsea and literally on the day of coming over with his wife, he wouldn’t fly anymore so he was driving,

“I got a call from [Chelsea’s] then-managing director Colin Hutchinson. He said we still want to sign Dennis but we don’t have the money. That was a real shock as we’d worked on the deal for a long time.”

Anderson, who was FIFA’s first licensed agent, responded by phoning Bergkamp’s Dutch representatives and suggesting Arsenal as another destination. This was agreed unbeknown to Bergkamp, who still believed he was set to sign for Chelsea.

“I put the phone down and called David Dein, I said, ‘Something’s happened today and