Behind every successful man is a wonderful woman who shies away from the limelight and serves him with her best. The same thing happens in a successful football club as well. We can see from Gary Lewin’s contribution during our busy Double-winning season in 2001/02. Our squad was hit with injuries to many team members and he did an excellent job as a physio.
Recently, there was an article by Roy Collins about another man behind the shadows at our beloved Arsenal. He is regarded as Arsene’s right hand man: his name is Boro Primorac, the first team coach, currently 49 years of age.
A Croatian who previously captained the former Yugoslavian team, he joined Arsenal in March 1997. Since then, he has played an important role in Arsenal. According to other staff, he is considered a joker and he watches even more games than our very own Arsene.
“If Wenger has a reputation as a TV football addict, once watching five successive games on an FA Cup weekend, Primorac is an absolute junkie, watching every game on every channel and also devouring every newspaper and football magazine that he can get his hands on.”
“He is an absolute walking encyclopedia on world football. You could ask him about any player and he would give you his age, weight, his preferred kicking foot and a complete list of his habits. He and Arsene also share the belief that the three most important things in the game are technique, technique, technique. And along with that, power, pace, youth and skill.”
Boro was also referred as the BBC man by John Lukic and also Arsene’s eyes, ears and sounding board. He also takes care of the training sessions when Arsene’s not around.
Boro also provides Wenger good insight in assessing player’s ability and Wenger even admits he has sometimes signed players based on his assessments. Examples are current Fulham player Luis Boa Morte when he was only 19 and captain Patrick Vieira, whom Boro knew for two years before his departure from Cannes.
As Vieira played only two games for Milan in his eight months there before joining Arsenal, it would have been astonishing for Wenger to have agreed to pay £4.5 million for him without an insider’s knowledge about the player’s capabilities and temperament, and who better to ask than Boro, his right-hand man.
Wenger further admits the value and contribution Boro is to the club: “He has worked with me for a long time and I rate his contribution highly. But it is always difficult to say exactly how important someone is. He is like Pat Rice in that he works hard with me every day and he contributes highly on the pitch. He’s a good football technician and he knows what I want.”