When Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie arrived in north London, Dennis Bergkamp was on hand to keep a close eye on the pair.
Speaking exclusively to our In Lockdown podcast, our Invincible forward revealed how both youngsters impressed him during their early days with us.
"Fabregas came in and was very quiet, very respectful to the players and suddenly he found himself in between big big names and he was just developing himself, just quietly,” Bergkamp said.
"He didn't have a big mouth, he was just trying to get better every year and you can see what kind of career he had because he had the right mindset. He had the right approach to his style of the game.
"With Robin van Persie, he had some problems in Holland with his old team but as soon as he came there was a connection. The image he had in Holland was that he was very arrogant, that he was the sort of player who had the wrong attitude, but as soon as he came he had a lot of respect for us.
"He started training sessions and he didn't have a big mouth; he was learning, asking questions, my wife got on with his wife, slowly you build a relationship. It was mainly on the pitch, I was trying to lead by example and he mentioned a few times that he was learning from that.
"Off the pitch as well, we had a few talks about certain things, about the Dutch national team and that sort of stuff, where he could learn from. I enjoyed just sharing my experience in those situations."
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