Exclusive By Harry Pratt THERE'S been a lot of talk about unsung heroes at Highbury this season, with even the likes of Nigel Winterburn and Lee Dixon being mentioned as possible honours winners when the Football Writers Association hold their annual awards dinner. But today, Football365 can reveal the identity of an authentically anonymous individual within the club worthy of the 'unsung' category. For among the double chasers' foreign ranks is a reclusive Yugoslav named Boro Primorac. You may well ask who? - I certainly did. But for the last 12 months, this ex-international defender has been working alongside Arsene Wenger to produce arguably the best Arsenal side of all time. A former coach at Cannes, the 43-year-old Primorac first worked with Wenger in Japan as his assistant manager at Grampus Eight. Last March he quietly walked into Highbury unnoticed. While one or two of the better-informed faithful in N5 know about his influence, not many others can even pronounce the name, let alone say what he does. So what does he do? Primorac, fluent in three languages, said: "I spend a lot of time on the training pitch, with senior players and the youth section. I have no specific role in that I work with everyone. I do what Pat Rice and Mr Wenger ask me to do. That can mean going abroad to look for new players or helping coach the youth team." Before you ask what's so important about that? , Primorac has the experience to back up his various jobs. As a versatile midfielder and defender he played more than 20 times for the former Yugoslavia, helping them qualify for the 1982 World Cup finals in Spain - although injury kept him on the sidelines during the tournament. He had started his playing career with the great Hadjuk Split in the former Yugoslavia, making his name there before moving to France with Lille and Cannes, becoming the latter's coach on his retirement. It was then he forged a friendship with Wenger, who was boss at nearby Monaco. We've known each other for over 10 years now and he trusts me, said Primorac. I might look at a specific player and do individual work with him. Or else I could work with the first team. Also I go and watch other games. Then if the boss asks me to go abroad I might do that. "Arsenal are a big club and so there is a lot of work to do. Maybe they are not as big as Juventus, for instance, but they are a big club in England and that means there is pressure. But I know what it means to be with a famous club because I was at Hajduk Split and they are one of the biggest clubs in what is now Croatia. I was a player for over 20 years so that means I can work in every area."

BOSS SALUTES DOUBLE WINNER BERGKAMP   Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has hailed Footballer of the Year Dennis Bergkamp as the catalyst for the Gunners' title charge - then warned the rest of the Premiership that the Dutchman's best is still to come. Wenger revealed ''I am not at all surprised the football writers have given him this award as he's had a superb season. Yet he will still improve as he is a perfectionist. ''He is at the age, from 28 to 32, where you have the skill and the maturity and are still physically very strong. There are no barriers to stop him improving and I think in the next three years he will improve a lot because physically he is still young.'' Even bearing in mind Bergkamp's huge contribution to Arsenal's title challenge over recent months, the Frenchman believes it was the striker's form at the start of the season, when he helped mould a new team into shape, that had the greatest impact. Bergkamp scored 11 goals in the first 12 weeks of the season, many of them spectacular efforts. He won the player of the month awards for August and September and also came first, second and third in Match of the Day's goal of the month competition. Perhaps more importantly, he set the tone for Arsenal's season and allowed the large number of new players - such as Marc Overmars, Emmanuel Petit, Gilles Grimandi, Remi Garde and Nicolas Anelka - time to settle in. Wenger said: ''The team had no history at all. They didn't know how well they could do. Dennis and Ian Wright were determined to build up the confidence in a side which was totally new. ''In the first 20 games they scored 18 or 19 together and that was just tremendous. Dennis was unstoppable then, not only because he scored goals but also because it seemed so easy for him to run through defences. He looked very strong.'' The Arsenal boss pointed to Bergkamp's deep thinking about the game, his dedication and his 'killer' instinct in front of goal as reasons why the £7.5million signing from Inter Milan in 1995 had matured into a player of genuine world class. The Dutchman is currently out injured, after picking up a hamstring problem in the mid-week victory over Derby, and looks doubtful for the FA Cup final on May 16. ''The good news is that we have been without him before this season and we have still won games,'' said Wenger. "And I still have a small hope that he will be back for the final. But it looks as if he will be out for at least two weeks and maybe three. We will not take any risks at all.'' Bergkamp's previous absences this season have mainly been due not to injury but suspensions, missing three games in November after picking up five yellow cards and a further three matches last month after being sent off at West Ham in the FA Cup quarter-final replay for elbowing Steve Lomas. Although Wenger believes Bergkamp has improved his disciplinary record this season, he admits: ''I think it will always be a problem because he provokes defenders by the way he plays and when he is fouled he doesn't feel happy and he lets the referees know that.'' Yet his abiding memories of the striker's season will be entirely positive. Wenger cherishes Bergkamp's own favourite goal of the season, his hat-trick clinching effort at Leicester in August when he exquisitely chipped Kasey Keller, and also, perhaps most crucially, his curling shot at Barnsley a week ago that left Arsenal within two victories of the title. If Bergkamp recovers from injury in time, the greatest highlight could still be to come - helping the side to the Double at Wembley.

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