‘Unbelievable feet’ - Two Arsenal ‘Invincibles’ overshadowed by Thierry Henry & Dennis Bergkamp named that would have been ‘super superstars’ at any other club

Islington native Halls joined Arsenal’s fabled youth system as a teenager and showed enough promise that a first-team breakthrough was able to be made. He figured in three League Cup fixtures - picking up a red card on debut against Manchester United in November 2001 - and got the opportunity to rub shoulders with a collection of all-time greats.

French forward Henry was very much top dog in north London, with fellow countryman Vieira and non-flying Dutchman Bergkamp forming part of an iconic supporting cast that also included England internationals Ashley Cole and Sol Campbell.

Halls got the chance to work with World Cup winners and modern day idols on a daily basis, with the brightest of sporting spotlights being cast over N5. That limelight had to be shared, which inevitably led to a few supremely talented individuals being overshadowed.

Robert Pires captured a global crown alongside Henry in 1998 while capturing two domestic titles and a couple of FA Cups with Arsenal. He is one of those that would have enjoyed even greater acclaim had his career path led elsewhere, with mercurial Nigerian striker Nwankwo Kanu considered to be another that slots seamlessly into that category.

Asked about Pires and other relatively unsung heroes from the ‘Invincibles’ era, Halls - speaking exclusively to GOAL courtesy of GambleGuru - said: “Arsenal fans adore that guy. But like you say, sometimes there's other players in that team that didn't get looked at as that super superstar. But there were so many players in there.

“Pires, I remember one game, I was on the bench when Dennis Bergkamp scored that goal at Newcastle. And I was a young, I think 17-year-old, warming up and down. I think the gaffer told me to warm up about the 47th minute. And I stayed out there the whole time. I didn't come back to the bench, I just warmed up and warmed up and warmed up because I was so nervous. But anyway, that game, Pires was unbelievable. He was so good that game. And I was stunned by his quality at that game. And obviously, Dennis done that thing.

“But then, training with him day in, day out, it was people like Kanu. Kanu was like one of the best things you'd ever see - his feet, unbelievable feet. Strong, like he would walk into any team. And with the depth there and the ability there, it was just insane. It really was.

“But it was many, many, many players. Even in our youth team, in the reserve team, that would have just walked into most teams in the country. At the time, Arsenal and Man United were probably the only teams that were playing football. So it was kind of a weird thing. You leave Arsenal, it's a different type of football. But the talent was insane.”

While playing alongside Pires and Co at club level, Halls was also an international colleague of Peter Crouch, Jay Bothroyd and Joleon Lescott in the England U20 set-up - and they all went on to enjoy productive careers in the Premier League, earning senior Three Lions caps along the way.

Quizzed on whether it was always clear that they would make it, or if luck - being in the right place at the right time - plays some part in journeys to the top, Halls added: “Absolutely. There's luck, there's timing, there's injuries, there's managers that like you or dislike you and staying sometimes at a club too long when you're not favoured, you're not in. I've done that, definitely at Reading. But yeah, the boys at England, we were unbelievable. There was some unbelievable talent there.

“I think it's always been a struggle with talented players back in my day of playing too much football. We wanted to play too much football. And then when you go into the leagues and into the Championship, maybe lower ends of the Premiership, they don't want you to play football. They want to be safe. They want to win games.

“When you open up against the big teams, you're going to get felt. So there was that thing of when we left our big clubs to go to these smaller clubs or in the Championship that you were trying to play too much. And that kind of went against us. I think a lot of the players were like that.

“So it definitely went against me a little bit because I wouldn't change my mind. I got taught by Arsenal how to play the correct football. And I wouldn't change my mind, even though the manager said to me, ‘listen, send one down in the corner’. I'm like, ‘no, that's not how I got taught, I got taught to play this and that and I'm going to do it no matter what’. So sometimes it goes against you.”

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