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The Sun wrote:IT'S been quite a career already and Arsenal's Nicklas Bendtner is still only 21.
We have had the pink boots and paparazzi snaps of him being carried out of Mayfair nightclub Boujis with his trousers at half-mast.
Then there was the infamous incident at White Hart Lane where he ended with a bloodied nose after an alleged head-butt from former team-mate Emmanuel Adebayor.
Get the picture? Well, if you do, you've got the wrong one.
Because the 6ft 3in Dane is as personable, plausible and intelligent a young footballer as they come.
And he can even have a good laugh at himself.
Suggest the reason why a player once dubbed 'the ox in the box' changed his Arsenal shirt number from 26 to 52 was because it was a closer match to the chances he required to score and he says: "Very good - I like it."
Or, maybe, because it's the reverse of the 25 formerly worn by his great mate Adebayor?
"It's certainly nothing to do with that," he says, ho-ho-ing. "I would never wear that number."
The pounds-per-week of his new contract, perhaps? The fact he will be twice the player next season?
"Now that's not bad," he says. "After looking at the videos, I reckon I should have scored 25 goals last season not 15. I missed four in one game at Burnley alone."
In the end, it's more prosaic. His favourite number is seven, that's already taken by Tomas Rosicky, five plus two equals seven - and, to him, 52 looks far more powerful than four plus three (43).
But back to Adebayor, a player perceived by many Arsenal fans as a Big-Time Charlie and malign dressing-room influence.
And the man who totally over-reacted at Spurs during Arsenal's 5-1 Carling Cup thrashing in January 2008.
What went on? Bendtner said: "He came on as sub, I didn't pass to him and he got annoyed. Then we had a disagreement. Then we went to the near post and what happened just happened."
It was claimed Adebayor said: "I only came on because you're s***."
Bendtner smiled: "If he did, I didn't hear it.
"My view now is if I don't have anything positive to say about someone, it's best I say nothing.
"Did I get on with him? We played in the same team. Outside that we just tried to make it work. We didn't exactly go to the pub together. When did we last speak? I can't remember."
So he should be delighted Adebayor has gone. Instead, he claims it would have been far more satisfying had the big Togan stayed - and he had proved good enough to take his place.
Bendtner said: "For sure. Because I love high-level competition and feel the more people you have to challenge for your place the sweeter it is when you take it from them.
"I have always been a fighter and that's the way I like it.
"I thought it was an equal battle with Adebayor.
"The frustrating thing was I could play well and lose my place - on the basis of his goals the previous season.
"I wanted to show I could do the same."
The pair will meet again at Eastlands on September 12. First, though, is the appointment at Old Trafford this evening where the Gunners will try and erase the memory of their 3-1 Champions League hammering by Manchester United at The Emirates.
Bendtner said: "No one would have predicted that result in a million years.
"I thought it would be tight - then came Kieran Gibbs's slip. It was miserable and saddening because he had played so fantastically whenever he had filled in for Gael Clichy.
"We then pushed forward and they took full advantage.
"Now there is an immense desire to give something back to the fans, to show something really special is being built here this season, that it's no flash in the pan.
"That what we have worked on in pre-season DOES work even against the big teams.
"There is no place like Old Trafford to show you can be rewarded for playing football the right way."
After the Champions League defeat, the Dane would go on to make his spectacular exit from Boujis.
He admitted: "It was a mistake and I had to take it on the chin.
"I saw the boss, explained what had happened, he fined me and we got on with it. I have learned my lesson. I remember waking up in the morning to several messages. I rang my best friend in Denmark... I recalled there had been some pictures taken... of course, he was laughing... so did I in retrospect.
"My team-mates? At first they were disappointed I had actually gone out so late but they also saw the funny side.
"This time, though, no Boujis."
And then, of course, those boots - the pink ones (since donated to a children's charity) proving an instant hit on their first outing, Bendtner scoring the winner against Dinamo Kiev that took Arsenal through to the Champions League knockout stage last season.
It earned him the nickname 'The Pantomime Dane'. It could have been worse - The Wuss in Boots, perhaps. He said: "I just love coloured boots. When I was nine I had some lime green ones and it just snowballed from there. I have had every colour except purple. But when I find them..."
It takes a confident man to wear this sort of thing but then, as Birmingham MD Karren Brady, once said: "Nicklas was never short on self belief. When he was on loan he remarked he should have been playing in the Arsenal team ahead of Thierry Henry."
Blowing out his cheeks and almost falling off his chair, he protested: "I can't recall that! Now that WOULD have been a big statement!"
Along the same lines, he has sought newspaper corrections following quotes that have come back a little mangled from Denmark. He said: "For people to think I said I should be in the team was bad, it made me look a big-head. Your team-mates think 'what's going on here?' "
Now he believes he is winning over the fans after a spell in which even he admitted he was performing 'like a Sunday League player'.
He said: "It has taken some time. I am happy with my game though the last part - putting the ball in the net - is not flawless and never will be.
"But I think I have gone through my Sunday League stage. It will never happen again."
Now that IS a big statement.
© The Sun
