Arsenal: How Dennis Bergkamp hilariously convinced club to sign Igor Stepanovs

Igor Stepanovs might have a Premier League winners medal to his name, but his time at Arsenal isn’t fondly remembered by many Gunners fans.

In truth, the Latvian centre-back was well out of his depth in the Premier League. However, that didn’t stop him from racking up four years at the club following a £1.35 million switch from Skonto Riga in 2000.

Widely considered one of the worst players ever to play for Arsenal in the English top flight, Stepanovs apparently has a bet between Ray Parlour and Gunners’ legend Dennis Bergkamp to thank for his fairytale Premier League opportunity.

The story of his signing recently re-emerged on social media and it’s still fantastic.

During an appearance on talkSPORT, Parlour recalled the £50 wager that he and Bergkamp agreed upon to try and wind up Arsenal veteran Martin Keown during a pre-season friendly in which Stepanovs was playing as a trialist.

“We were on a pre-season tour and Martin Keown, you could wind him up big time.

“We had this trialist come in at centre-half. He was probably thinking ‘we don’t need another centre-half, I’m not going to play!’

“So me and Dennis Bergkamp had a wind up. We had £50 on it. I had the first half to try and wind up Keown while Bergkamp had the second half.

“So every pass Igor did, it could be five yards, I was clapping him and saying ‘what a player this guy is! Fantastic!’

“Half-time whistle goes and Martin hasn’t bitten yet.

“Second half and Igor hits this ball, I think he miskicked it. Went to one of our players 20 yards away and Bergkamp stood up and goes ‘what a player’ and starts clapping. ‘I’ve played against some great centre-halves and I wouldn’t want to play against this guy’.

“All of a sudden Martin says ‘He isn’t that good. He should