From Niel Bekker :
Hi Myles,
Just wanted to say thanks again for many years of top writing.
I’ll always pay attention when anyone has anything to say about Dennis Bergkamp and since I have a soft spot for Steve Bould as well, your most recent piece was doubly heartwarming.
Hope you are well and will luxuriate in the next couple of months of non-football as much as I need to.
Regards from Cape Town.
Myles says :
Thanks, Niel. Glad you liked it.
Non-football is good and non-blogging, in the Algarve or Croatia, is heavenly.
It’s hard to stay fresh when writing & editing 40 to 60 pieces a month.
And it’s easy to burn out when you do a season after a ridiculously bloated tournament like Euro 2016.
This season I’ll be doing about 20 a month.
Less could be more…maybe.
Watching DB10 on his best days and nights was thrilling.
The only thing better than artistry is explosive artistry.
One day I was sitting next to Jim Lawton of The Independent for a game against Aston Villa and Bergkamp looked as if he was going to shoot from 35 yards and I heard myself say,“He’s not gonna shoot from there is he?”
Bang! Dennis hit a right foot rocket that flew low into the bottom left hand corner.
In the late Seventies I co-managed some groups with a Scottish accountant friend, Danny Wright. He later worked in Stockholm and other cities abroad.
While working for Oracle in Paris, Danny worked with a Dutchman who went to school with Bergkamp and the guy said Dennis spent all his time kicking a ball against a wall.