Daniel Ek's Arsenal takeover bid: Profiling the three Invincibles involved - and what each would bring

The statues of Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp outside the Emirates serve as a reminder of the days when Arsenal fans could be proud of their football club.

It is now 17 years since Henry and Bergkamp, together with Patrick Vieira, were part of Arsenal’s 2003/04 Invincible season, which still remains unequalled in the modern game.

Those who know 38-year-old Daniel Ek say that it was fellow Swede Anders Limpar who first sparked his interest in Arsenal, but, like all fans of his generation, he grew up idolising Henry, Bergkamp and Vieira, and the rest of the Invincibles.

So it stands to reason that when Spotify’s billionaire founder Ek decided he was serious about trying to buy Arsenal and restore the club’s former glory, he would tap into the knowledge of some of the club’s greatest-ever players.

Just as Arsenal recognised when commissioning the statues of two of their icons, Henry and Bergkamp, together with Vieira, are important reminders about what the club were and, just as importantly, what they should strive to be. The best.

But Arsenal have fallen a long way off the best since Stan Kroenke took control and the protests that followed the failed plot to be part of a European Super League served notice that, with the fans at least, his time is up.

Henry, Bergkamp and Vieira could all give the Gunners a much-needed lift, but, aside from their legendary status, the trio bring a unique skill-set and knowledge to the table for Ek to tap into.

All three players enjoyed incredible playing careers and, on the same day Telegraph Sport exclusively reported the news of the Invincibles’ involvement in Ek’s interest in buying Arsenal, Henry and Alan Shearer became the first men to be inducted into the newly-formed Premier League Hall of Fame.

Other than their achievements at Arsenal, Henry and Vieira won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championships together with France and played under some of football’s greatest-ever managers.

Arsene Wenger, Pep Guardiola and Gerard Houllier are three managers to have inspired Henry, who has an inner-knowledge of the workings of Arsenal and Barcelona, a club where he played for three years and which has embraced and used the knowledge of its ex-players to great effect.

Henry also worked as a player within the hugely successful Red Bull franchise in New York and has already amassed a wealth of coaching experience in his three jobs with the Belgium national team, at Monaco and, most recently, at Montreal Impact.

Vieira has played for some of the game’s top coaches, including Wenger, Fabio Capello and Roberto Mancini, who was the 44-year-old’s manager at both Inter Milan and his last club Manchester City.

It is Vieira’s time in Manchester and working for the City Football Group that may be of most use to Ek, as the Swede plots how he would make Arsenal great again.

Signed by Mancini in 2010, Vieira joined City at the start of their journey, following the 2008 Abu Dhabi takeover, to become one of football’s most powerful and successful clubs.

Following his single season as a player at City, Vieira remained at the club after his retirement to take the job of Football Development Executive, initially in charge of youth development.

The fact Vieira, a player with such a rich Gunners history, had been allowed to remain at one of Arsenal’s rivals did not go down well with the club’s fans and he went on to forge a close working relationship with Brian Marwood, who was a football administrator at City at the time and has gone on to be managing director of global football at the City Football Group.

Having managed City’s Elite Development Squad, Vieira remained within the City Group to take his first senior coaching job with New York City in the MLS before leaving in 2018 to take charge of Ligue 1 club Nice.

During two years at Nice, where he was manager when Britain’s richest man Jim Ratcliffe took control, Vieira guided the club to a seventh-placed finish and Europa League qualification before he was sacked in December last year.

Other than being a club legend, Henry counts himself very much an Arsenal fan and, speaking exclusively to Telegraph Sport last weekend, admitted that he no longer recognises the club he loves.

“This club belongs to the fans,” said Henry. “I love the club and I will support the club until I die, but I do not recognise my club and what happened just now, with them trying to join a league that would have been closed, makes no sense to me.”

Those words may have jogged the memory of Bergkamp, who, 10 years ago, was part of Johan Cruyff’s reinvention of Ajax that involved the return and promotion of a number of club legends.

Much like Henry told Telegraph Sport that he no longer recognises the Arsenal he played for, Cruyff had claimed “this isn’t Ajax anymore” and believed the club had become stagnant and settled for mediocrity.

Cruyff’s revolution included the return and promotion of former players such as Bergkamp, Frank de Boer, Marc Overmars, Edwin Van der Sar, Jaap Stam and Ronald de Boer.

It did not take long for the plan to succeed, as, having gone seven years without winning the Eredivisie title, Ajax won four successive titles and again started to produce players that all the top clubs in Europe wanted.

Bergkamp worked in a variety of roles before leaving Ajax four years ago, starting with the youth team, becoming assistant to Frank de Boer, following his promotion to manager in 2010, and working alongside Peter Bosz, who succeeded de Boer.

Last year, Bergkamp, now aged 51, confirmed his desire to return to Arsenal and hinted that he sees his future working in a club’s academy, saying: “When the time is right, I’d love to go back and get a role somewhere.

“I must admit, I have the urge to go on the pitch again and help, whether it’s with the technical or coaching staff. Of course it would be ideal at Arsenal – I spent 11 years there and have a good feeling with the club.

“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. I wouldn't be working for the sake of it; just to go to work and come home again. I'd like a challenge and to be really responsible for developing players and bringing them through.”

Bergkamp’s involvement with Henry, Vieira and Ek confirms that he believes the time is now right to make his return and the club’s fans will be praying that Kroenke now recognises the time is right for him to accept his time is up. The Invincibles want their Arsenal back.