Premier League icon Dennis Bergkamp is underplaying things a little when he says that move to London in 1995 – West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur were interested but he chose Arsenal instead – ‘turned out well’.
In eleven years with the Gunners, Bergkamp played over 400 games, scored 120 goals, accumulated a trio of top-flight titles, while also producing some of the most legendary goals in the competition’s history.
Yeah, it’s fair to say his Arsenal spell went as planned.
And as Bergkamp opens up on the negotiations which saw him leave Inter Milan for Highbury, we can now add his name into the list of elite-level attackers West Ham United missed out on.
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Hammers News can confirm that David Moyes vetoed a deal for Hugo Ekitike; the frolicking Frenchman who could make his one-time suitors pay when Liverpool host Nuno Espirito Santo’s side on Saturday.
West Ham tried to sign Bruno Fernandes from Sporting Lisbon as well, shortly before arguably the most influential player in the entire league joined Manchester United.
Dennis Bergkamp remembers West Ham United and Tottenham interest
Speaking to Joel Beya TV on YouTube, Bergkamp does not recall the finer details of West Ham’s interest. It was 31 years ago, after all, and Arsenal was always his first choice.
Yet, it is tempting to wonder how West Ham’s trajectory would have altered had Bergkamp joined a club who finished 14th in the 1994/95 campaign under Harry Redknapp.
“I made a decision in Italy to leave Inter because things were promised and I didn’t feel like it was going somewhere. So my big decision was leaving Italy at the end of the season,” Bergkamp explains.
“We had to work fast and I called my agent. The year before, he had been in contact with Arsenal for other players, so one of the first phone calls was to Arsenal. I spoke to Bruce Rioch, the manager, I spoke to [vice chairman] David Dein.
“They came with a story which was full of respect, full of plans, ambition for the future. I said to my agent, ‘I think we have to do this.’
“There were other clubs. I think Tottenham was interested, West Ham maybe, and of course two or three clubs in Germany and Spain. But I wanted to go to England. I wanted to experience that because I had some connection with England from my youth. I always enjoyed that football and I wanted to play there.
“In a few weeks, the decision was made. It was a gamble, but in the end, it turned out well.”
Arne Slot admits Mo Salah and Hugo Ekitike are struggling for form
Bergkamp’s fellow Dutchman Crysencio Summerville is likely to be West Ham’s best bet of ending an 11-year wait for a win at Anfield. Dominik Szoboszlai has excelled at right-back this term, but the Hammers’ free-scoring number seven will back himself to cause the Hungarian plenty of problems down the flank.
Summerville has six goals in his last eight appearances.
In contrast, the aforementioned Ekitike has only two in his last nine Premier League outings. Mo Salah’s last top-flight strike came all the way back on November 1st, meanwhile. Still, even an out-of-sorts Salah is a fearsome opponent for a defender in El Hadji Malick Diouf who has found life hard against tricky wingers at times.
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“[Salah] set his own standards and those are so, so, so high that the moment when he doesn’t score for a few games, people are immediately surprised,” the under-pressure Arne Slot said during his pre-West Ham press conference.
“That’s the challenge he has now and we have now; to make sure he starts scoring again. He’s not our only attacker that at this moment of time doesn’t score as much as we are used to. Hugo [Ekitike] and Cody [Gakpo] haven’t scored that many goals recently as well.
“So it’s, again, a team thing that we have to improve.”
A misfiring attack, coupled with West Ham’s defensive improvements since Axel Disasi arrived and Mads Hermansen returned between the sticks, makes for an intriguing head-to-head battle.
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