David Bentley might not be the Arsenal legend he wanted to be with how his career panned out but he remains a big lover of the club.
Bentley had a good career in the end with spells at Norwich, Blackburn and Tottenham all proving fruitful after he left Arsenal as a young man.
The midfielder was brought up through the Arsenal academy and despite never quite making the grade at The Emirates, is still someone the club can look back on and say they helped develop a career for.
Bayern Munich offer £100m for Kai Havertz…do Arsenal take it or tell them to go away?
For Bentley, coming through that famous Arsenal academy was an experience in itself.
In fact, so much so, that he’s now admitted that it wasn’t until leaving the club did he realise just what was so special about Arsenal.
David Bentley says what he thinks of Arsenal
David Bentley is among a big group of players to come through at the Hale End and go on to make it elsewhere in the game.
It is the nature of the beast really in football and Bentley proved he could do it by doing the business at other clubs and getting the call to England as well.
However, Bentley has told Clutch 9 podcast that when he reflects, it is very much Arsenal that leave a lasting impression on him.
“What a place to grow up,” Bentley remarked.
“I didn’t realise until coming out of there and years later reflecting on how good it actually was even when I went on to sort of play for England and play for you know even in Tottenham’s great team and so on, you realise the standards that were at Arsenal.”
What Arsene Wenger said about letting David Bentley leave Arsenal
Bentley was unfortunate in a way that he came through at a time when Arsenal really did have one of the best teams around.
In midfield, the likes of Pires, Ljungberg and more were in front of him and sadly, he never quite got to their level.
Indeed, at the time of letting Bentley go, manager at the time Arsene Wenger very much said that it was down to the quality in front of Bentley.
“I have no regrets,” he said. “When you have many young players you cannot keep them all.”
“The most important thing is that you develop them as a player and they have a big career. At some stage you have to consider the quality of the player and what is in front of him.
If you could say anything to respond to Liam Rosenior right now, what would it be?
“At the time the players in front of Bentley, like Ljungberg and Pires were better than him. He wanted to play more central, in the Dennis Bergkamp role, and I felt at the time he was not ready. He would be more ready today.”
In the end, Wenger’s judgement was right but still, Bentley had a solid career and clearly, thinks very highly of the football club.
Receive a digest of our best Arsenal content each week direct to your mailbox
