Peter Le Beau
If you arrange any group of football-supporters around a table, it is highly likely at some stage that a trace of envy or regret will creep in. In my own case, I have had a full life and an interesting and reasonably successful business career, but I would have given it all up in a heartbeat to play for Arsenal. Alas, I was nowhere near good enough, but that does not prevent either the dreams or the frustration with those who had such a chance and blew it.
I want to look at two players today who engender all of those feelings and possibly more. Both are still playing - in fact one is nominally still playing for Arsenal - but I think we are entitled to ask “Where did it all go wrong?”
George Best used to tell the story of being asked just this question by a waiter in a hotel while he reclined on the four-poster with a semi-clad Miss World surrounded by bundles of cash and buckets of champagne!! In a sense, he earned the right to tell it against himself because he achieved remarkable things in football and left it recognised as one of the best talents the game had ever seen. Our own Frank McLintock once told me that he was the finest player he ever faced in a long career in which he faced all the great world stars. For our two individuals there is no such counterpoint.
The two young men I want to profile are Nicklas Bendtner and David Bentley. Both had a torrid transfer window, Bendtner seemingly negotiating with a whole range of clubs throughout Europe only for his wage demands to scupper each deal. Cue a lament from a series of frustrated managers which became almost a chorus of regret at his unrealistic demands.
Bentley was released by Tottenham in June after a career which really took off in 2004 at Arsenal with an outrageous chip over Mark Schwarzer of Middlesbrough in an FA Cup win at Highbury. He was technically an Invincible, starting for the first team in a League game at Portsmouth towards the end of that never-to-be-forgotten season. But never-to-be-forgotten is not a phrase you could use to describe these two young men. By any standard, both men have proved a huge disappointment and it is hard to believe that hubris is not responsible.
Let’s look at Bendtner first. His nickname among Arsenal fans is TGSTEL (The Greatest Striker That Ever Lived). The reason he carries this monicker stems from the findings of a psychologist, who said that he had never worked with any player with a greater sense of his own-self worth and ability. It followed on from interviews where he blandly stated how good he thought he was. It’s not a very English (or Danish) thing to do, but self-confidence is a huge asset in a striker.
I called this to mind a few years ago as he notched a Champions League hat-trick against Porto to send us through to the last eight. A matter of days before, he had been substituted to mass derision against Burnley after missing a selection of sitters that no self-respecting striker should have missed. His bouncebackability was awesome and certainly much greater than his talent.
It all looked so different when, after breaking through to the first team in 2005, he was sent on loan to Birmingham City and made a huge impression, playing 42 games and scoring 11 goals. He returned to Arsenal and began to play more regularly for the first team. I remember appraising him as having a very average first touch and very little pace, but he was very good in the air, strong and potentially powerful. Some of his early days were blighted by a feud with Emmanuel Adebayor which became very public. Having watched their careers since, it looks in retrospect like an inevitable collision of egos.
Bendtner has had fine moments in the Arsenal shirt. Late winners in games against Kiev in the Champions League, Wolves and Hull in the Premier League, and a soaring header to win the North London Derby with his very first touch. But he is also remembered for fluffing a great chance in the last minute at the Nou Camp in the Champions League, where, set up by Wilshere, he provided a first touch that most players in diving boots would have bettered. He has also not been helped by being played wide, mainly on the right, as Van Persie staked the first claim to the striker spot that Bendtner craved. Shorn of pace, and seemingly not indulged by Wenger, one has felt a four-year sulk being acted out.
Loan spells at Sunderland were spoilt by his errant behaviour off the field and mediocre performance on it, and, when he got what was ostensibly a dream move to Juventus, he was immediately deemed unfit by the coaching staff and suffered the humiliation of failing to sell a single Juventus replica shirt, so minimally did his signing stir the imagination of the Italian club’s fans. Did they not realise he was TGSTEL?
His off-field performance attracted lurid headlines. A relationship with a glamorous Danish princess produced a son, but set against a hope of stability came a paparazzi picture of an almost trouserless Bendtner being lowered semi-comatose into a waiting car. Recent tweets of his girlfriend in her underwear have done little to quell the thought that this is a boy with too much time on his hands.
Internationally, he received a rather harsh fine for the Paddy Power underwear incident in the Euros and was banned by Denmark for six months in March this year following a drink-driving conviction. Since his enforced return to Arsenal, he has begun talks with a legion of clubs only for negotiations to break down over salary (he is reputed to "earn" £52k a week). There appeared little willingness to compromise over his wage demands, and on transfer deadline day he was diverted from the Crystal Palace training ground where talks were planned to return to Arsenal after we failed to sign a striker. Few Gooners expect him to make many appearances unless injuries strike us, but a typically Bendtnerish statement the day after TDD coupled his honesty about the desire to leave with a very positive statement about what he believes he can do for the club.
Bentley is a different story, but there are similarities. Hailed as a prodigy from early days at Arsenal I remember writing to the Gooner letter page enquiring why a 15/16 year old boy would have his own website. Perhaps a prescient sign of things to come? As I mentioned earlier he seemed set fair for honours galore and duly broke through early. He likened himself to another DB - the incomparable Dennis Bergkamp, and, while that chip against Middlesbrough established his credentials, he became impatient at breaking into a front line where he competed with Henry, Bergkamp, Pires, Reyes and Ljungberg.
A loan to Norwich and then a loan and eventual transfer to Blackburn was followed by England recognition and a move to Tottenham Hotspur, which profited Arsenal significantly through a sell-on clause. An outrageous goal in the NLD which beat Almunia from almost 40 yards gave evidence of his talent but severe injuries and attitude problems saw him slip down the pecking-order at White Hart Lane and unsuccessful loan moves, blighted by injury, to West Ham, Blackburn and Rostov saw his star slip further down in the firmament. Nevertheless, he was part of the Blackburn team last season which knocked us out of the FA Cup. In June came his release and, to the best of my knowledge, he is still without a club. Sounds familiar?
Stories like these are often referred to as tragic when they are nothing of the sort. They are a waste of real talent and a lesson that sometimes dedication wins out over perspiration. Above all, they indicate a worrying but not by any means new tendency for talented, photogenic young men with the world at their feet to let it go to their heads. In the current era, the likelihood of this happening is multiplied a hundredfold with the sums of money involved and the intrusiveness of social media highlighting the slightest indiscretion.
Neither of these gentlemen is likely to consider himself a failure and, in terms of the average fan or player, they have achieved things already which are beyond the reach of all but a privileged few. But the feeling remains that both could have done so much better with the talent that they have.
Bentley, particularly, was a huge favourite of Arsène Wenger as he emerged from the youth team. I saw his first appearance at home to Oxford in the Cup and also witnessed that audacious chip against Boro. He played without fear and a touch of star quality and his early progress suggest he had the ability to go on in his career to fulfil the predictions of future greatness that many made. Certainly, rough luck with injuries is cruel but not unique to professional players, and it can be a spur to many determined young players to overcome adversity. Not so with this DB.
Meanwhile, almost unbelievably, TGSTEL wakes up after TDD as an Arsenal player, possibly a heartbeat or a groin strain away from the first team again. I think this says much more about our inability to land a top striker than our faith in NB52, but the fact remains that for some people this could be a career lifeline. None of the conversations he was having were with clubs of the size and stature of Arsenal.
Hubris has caused the downfall of many a potentially fine player and it is hard not to believe it has done so again in these two cases. All is not lost for them, but it would be a huge surprise to see them return. One suspects Bentley’s ship has already sailed and Bendtner’s might depart again in January. But ask yourself - if you had the chance Bendtner has, what would you try to do with it? It remains a pity that there is likely to be such a gap between your answer and his.
