Dennis Bergkamp Was Always Looking For Robert Pires.

 
Arsene Wenger in an interview with Arsenal Magazine revealed that the first few minutes of a new recruit's initial training session with the rest of his teammates had always been enough for him to learn something about such a signing.

In the case of Robert Pires, the Frenchman stated what he noticed about him when he newly arrived at Arsenal which was that Dennis Bergkamp was always giving the ball to Pires.

"You learn something straight away [in training],” he told the Arsenal Magazine. “If it’s an offensive player I always put them alongside very good players in the small matches when they arrive for their first training sessions. Then you see how much these players give them the ball.

“When I signed Robert Pires, in the first small-sided training game, I put him in the same team as Dennis Bergkamp.

"After five minutes I knew how good he was because Bergkamp kept giving him the ball! So Bergkamp thought he was a good player, they linked up well together so then you know you have won the battle.

“Of course you put them in conditions in training where you can see if other players think they are good. That’s always very important, because players want to be respected by the others in the dressing room.

“Also it’s important that they can be in an environment where they can express their talent, so you want to do that as early as you can in a training session.”