by lewdikris
Jan 25, 2004
Walking in a Bentley Wonderland
So all the talk's about the next in the large group of Wenger’s wonderkids. This season we’ve already had major excitement about Cesc Fabregas, Jeremie Aliadiere and Gael Clichy. Had Phillippe Senderos not been repeatedly injured we’d have been talking about him too. And now we’re going to have to talk about David Bentley, because, after a wondrous last minute lob over Mark Schwarzer in the customary 4 goal rout of Middlesborough, everyone else is.
Like all the rest of our prodigiously talented youth, there’s no guarantee Bentley will ever be a first team regular for Arsenal. He’s massively skilled, but, as Wenger has said many times, bridging the gap between ability and achievement means taking opportunities when they’re open, riding luck over injuries – being in the right place at the right time. Ashley Cole had that, being on hand when Silvinho was injured to steal his place once and for all. Other members of that FA Youth Cup winning team have not been so fortunate (or so able), and Steven Sidwell and company now mostly ply their trade away from the marble halls.
I’ve got a sense Bentley is the talent to be nurtured most carefully of all the kids, because it may well be on his shoulders that a lot depends for our club. Clichy, Aliadiere, Senderos, even Fabregas, a midfield quarterback in the Guardiola mould, all play roles that can be hardened by experience, where faults can be papered over by work-rate, power and commitment. They’re all easily replaceable if they fail. But Bentley, as Wenger has said, is a number 10 in the Bergkamp mould, a striker who wants to play in that mysterious and oft mentioned ‘hole’ between midfield and attack where the orchestration of a football match can be most beautifully produced. That position is, quite simply the most difficult one on the football pitch, and it’s a place where genius is required, where nothing else but genius will do. And so, naturally enough, there aren’t many of them about.
The three greatest number 10s are the three greatest players in the history of football: Pele, Maradonna and Cruyff. Our own Dennis Bergkamp supplanted Ruud Gullit in that role for Holland – the footballing country that realised most firmly that real genius needs a position where the capacity to do anything can be given the space and room in which to do it. English football has never produced a player of genius in that position (although Peter Beardsley came close), largely preferring great midfielders, from Bobby Charlton to Paul Gascoigne to Paul Scholes to cover the ground between the halfway line and the edge of the box.
I mention that about English football because if Bentley can go on to fulfil his evident talent, and to play the game his way, he will be a virtual first in this country. He’s got a long, long way to go yet, but to come from a country whose interpretation of the game has for too long relied on strength and grit and hard, hard running and play like he could would be some feat. Like Bergkamp, whose terrace chants (‘Walking in a Bergkamp/Bentley Wonderland’) and initials he shares, and whose squad number he clearly wants, Bentley’s game is not played moving at pace. Rather, it’ll be at a virtual standstill where he does his best work, drawing opposing defenders towards him before a sly flick of the boot caresses the ball on to a player haring into the channels – or, as yesterday, lofting the ball into the top corner.
When the defenders in front of you are of the no-nonsense sort, like Danny ‘Satanic’ Mills both last Tuesday and on Saturday, that game becomes all the harder, because standing, waiting to make the pass, assessing the options, issues an open invitation to a crunching challenge. And if it’s a hard thing to do now, just imagine what it was like in the early 70s, as Bobby Charlton’s international career was coming to an end and eyes could only be enviously cast across the North Sea towards Cruyff reinventing the game at Ajax, whilst in the old First Division any attempt to open up the kind of spaces Cruyff could was faced down by the Norman Hunter’s of this world who would break your legs at the first sign of a step-over or a canny flick!
A number 10 can be a luxury, and so far Bentley can be said to be no more than that. His goal on Saturday was gloss on what was already a comprehensive victory – welcome, but not vital. And it will only be when his influence can be decisively read as absolutely necessary that Bentley can really be judged. In the Carling Cup he has looked superfluous playing out of the left, his passing angles too reduced, his need to move with the ball too great to open things up as he clearly wants to. I have a feeling Wenger will play him up front with Bergkamp on Wednesday, because there is a prime opportunity to make him take responsibility and win us a game of some importance. The partnership is not an ideal one. Two number 10s could easily become too technical, not incisive enough, but if Bentley is to prosper, it has to be from following Bergkamp’s lead to the letter.
Because Bergkamp has been this club’s greatest number 10, and along with Zola, the best that has played in these shores. Bergkamp’s secret is being strong enough to hold defenders off whilst he decides what needs to be done next. Bentley doesn’t have that yet, but that can come.
Will Wenger though give him the time he needs? It’s a question worth asking in the light of the massive press rumours about our possible purchasing of either Robin Van Persie of Feyenoord or Jose Antonio Reyes of Seville. Both of those are number 10s in the making, left-footers who could also slot into Bergkamp’s role – although both resemble more the leggy style of one Thierry Henry. Reyes may well be the most talented (and feted) youth in the game – at only 20 he could already command a transfer fee in excess of 20 million pounds. Van Persie would come at a quarter of that cost, but is an extremely elegant, graceful player, who will compete for the coveted Holland number 10 shirt with Rafael Van Der Vaart and Arjen Robben for the next 10 years. Both Reyes and Van Persie could conceivably destroy Bentley’s Arsenal hopes – and the need of this country to develop a number 10 all of our own.
But maybe it shouldn’t be looked at like that. Although only a year older than him, both those players have been at smaller clubs where experience has been easier to gain. Van Persie played in a UEFA cup final at only 18. Reyes has played 100 games for Seville where Bentley has not yet reached 5. As the example of Wayne Rooney shows, mega-talent is more easily noticed at smaller clubs. Games are easier to come by. Both are left footed however, and if Bentley is really good enough, then it may be that, were one of them to join us, they would finally find their place not in the hole, but inheriting Robert Pires’ position on the left wing. It seems more financially likely that it will be Van Persie who joins us, and to see him and Bentley in competition with one another will be fascinating.
If it is Bentley that comes out on top in that battle then it is not only Arsenal fans, but the whole of English football which could rejoice. He would be a first - final evidence that the English football educational system has been effected enough by Wenger’s impact to actually produce a player who will stand with his foot over the ball and wait for someone to make a move. To caress the ball not to smash it. To think better and more subtly than defenders, like those legends of Brazilian and Dutch football have done, but no-one who could pull on the Three Lions ever has.
Nothing is certain yet, but that lob on Saturday afternoon, in the last minute of a game already won could be the best glimpse of all into the future of Wenger’s kids. He may come to nothing, but David Bentley could be a genuinely significant player, and Wenger’s best young find, right on our own doorstep.
We can only hope.
Just like we can only get a hope he gets a haircut before it happens. As any photo will show – it’s terrible.
