Arsene Wenger said I was one of best he managed – I told Dennis Bergkamp I'd take his number

Jay Bothroyd has made some big claims about his former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, including the legendary boss telling him he was "one of the best he ever managed."

The one-time England international came through the Gunners' academy but never made a first-team appearance for the club. Bothroyd turned out for many different teams in his career, including Coventry City, Wolves, Cardiff City and Queens Park Rangers, scoring 153 goals in 518 career appearances.

Despite never actually playing for Arsenal, the 43-year-old looks back fondly at his time in north London and even recalls a time when Wenger made a point of seeing him during a Three Lions camp at Arsenal's London Colney training ground to tell him something extraordinary. During an episode of Adebayo Akinfenwa's podcast, Beast Mode On, Bothroyd told the story of how the iconic Gunners boss handed him the highest praise possible.

He said: "I hadn't been back to Arsenal's training ground since I left. So I was in there, Gary Lewin, a physio - Arsenal [and England] physio - and he came up to me. He's like, 'Jay, the boss wants to see you.'"

Initially believing it was then-England manager Fabio Capello who wanted to see him, Bothroyd was left confused - but he then made the journey to face his former Arsenal boss. He continued: "I'm walking through the building. Obviously, all these nostalgic memories are coming back to me, because it's like that training ground opened with me, with us. We were the first people to train in that training ground.

"So, I go upstairs, as soon as I walk in the room, he comes from behind his desk. He came and gave me a big cuddle. And I was like, in that moment, I had tears in my eyes because it was like he kind of gave me the cuddle, and then he grabbed my shoulders.

"He's like, 'I knew it. I knew you could do it. I knew you had the talent like that.' And I said, 'Thanks boss,' and I was like, 'Again, I just want to apologise for my behaviour back then. I was a completely different person.' And he's like, 'Don't worry about none of that. These things happen. You created a pathway for yourself, and you still got yourself back to the top.'

"So he said, 'That in itself doesn't happen a lot. You've done that. So I want to congratulate you on that.' So we start talking anyway, and we're talking about old times, players, and all that kind of stuff.

"And then he says to me, 'Do you know one thing? One thing that I always took from you as a kid then, you were one of the best players I've ever worked with, even up until this point now.'

"I was like, 'What do you mean?' And he was like, 'You are one of the most talented players I've ever worked with in my career as a manager.'"

Bothroyd couldn't believe his luck, claiming that it was written about in the media at the time. This was something he was extremely glad about, as he felt people wouldn't have believed him otherwise.

He added: "It meant a lot because Thierry [Henry], [Dennis] Bergkamp, [Nwankwo] Kanu, all these kind of players that he's dealt with at Clairefontaine, that he probably worked with some of them young players as well, like for him to say that to me, that was like instant.

"There's no bigger compliment than that from a person because he's worked with some of the best players in the world. Some of the best players ever, you know. So that meant a lot to me."

The ex-Arsenal youth star went on to recall a moment where he was called up to the first-team training sessions as a youngster - and his first thought was to call the iconic Dennis Bergkamp out for "wearing my number." Bothroyd said: "I think I was the first player to start training with the first team daily, and in the beginning, it was very much like, 'Ah, one of the first team players isn't playing. Send one of the coaches over, go get Jay, bring him over.'

"And I remember when I went with the first team, it was the same thing. It was like, 'All right, I'm playing with Bergkamp, Henry and these players,' and I was like, 'They're good, but I'm good.'

"I remember, there's a story with Ray Parlour, right? Ray Parlour. I remember we went into the thing and I went to Dennis Bergkamp. I said, 'Bro, you're wearing my number, you know.' I said, 'You ain't going to have that for long.'"

After Akinfenwa showed his disbelief, Bothroyd added: "Yeah. And I remember Ray Parlour started laughing. He said, 'What? You think you should have that number?' And I said, 'Yeah, yeah, I do. I can be better than you.' Because I'm like, 'You're playing in that Arsenal team, you can't play c**p.'

"You can't be c**p because they'll make you look good even if you were not good enough. Right? And that's what it was. It was like that, but I actually genuinely felt that I was better than those players there."