​Bergkamp opens door to Arsenal coaching return

October 1, 2020

Arsenal legend Dennis Bergkamp has opened the door to a return to the club – as a coach.

The Dutchman, who was with the Gunners for 11 years, has spent the past six years coaching with Ajax.

But he has not been full time in that job since December 2017.

Now Bergkamp wants to get back to coaching, and may turn to Arsenal to make it happen.

In a column for BBC Sport, he wrote: “I’ve not worked full-time since leaving Ajax in 2017 and I am not actively looking for a job in football at the moment.

“But, more and more, I am thinking about getting back on the training pitch again, because that is what I love the most.”

He added: “Whatever I do next, though, I don’t want to be a head coach.

“It’s not my ambition and I like my freedom too much.

“I like to spend time with my family and have a life outside football, and I don’t think you can be a fully committed manager if you want to play golf sometimes as well.

“Seriously, though, I know certain clubs work with strikers’ coaches, just like the old goalkeeper specialists who came in two or three times a week and as soon as the session was finished they were gone.

“But, for me, it would be too restrictive to be limited to that side of it. If someone is not doing well, I’d want to talk about the rest of his game – whether it be something tactical or a personal issue.

“What I have in mind is a role that worked for me at Ajax, which was a lot like the one I had as a player – a little bit in between the lines. I wasn’t really a striker or a midfielder, but in between.

“That’s how I see myself as a coach as well. I like to be involved with the first team but I think my power, my strength, is to bring players from the youth to the first team.

“Sometimes the youth team and first-team can be like two islands. What I am talking about doing is like a bridging role between them, but I realise I’d have to have results as well.”

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