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Merci Arsène

A_G

Rice Rice Baby 🎼🎵
A-M CL Draft Campeón 🏆

Arsène Wenger has a small confession to make. After all those years of saying “I didn’t see it” when it came to controversial on-field incidents involving his Arsenal team then, well, the truth is he often did.

“At the start maybe, yes, but after that when it became about the sense of humour - I thought ‘okay, maybe I will go with it’. It was a good way to get out of embarrassing situations sometimes!” Wenger says.

When he uttered it in front of the television cameras there was often a wry smile on his face. It would provoke a laugh from the interviewer. “And then you would get away with it,” Wenger adds, chuckling himself.

That “dry sense of humour” is one of the “qualities” Wenger likes best about England, a country he feels a deep affinity for after his 22 years at Arsenal – “I married well” – and a place “of passion, passion for the game and passion is linked to intensity and emotion and that’s what we had in common”.

That passion is evident in Wenger’s autobiography - 'My Life in Red and White' - which is the winner of The Telegraph Sports Book of the Year Award and also the Sports Bestseller of the Year Award. In a wide-ranging interview he discusses how daunted he was by his new role at Fifa, how he is pleased there is less “kicking” now in the Premier League and how the assessment of his final few years at Arsenal was “harsh”.

There is also a warning about the huge amounts of money being paid to young players – and even a hint that, maybe, he might just be lured back into management once last time. After all, he confirms, he was offered the England manager’s job as recently as 2016 after the debacle at the Euros.

But first the process of writing the book. “It was what life is about. Highs and lows. Rejection and love. Winning and losing. But, overall, it was intense,” Wenger says and it feels that is the only way that the 71-year-old can live his life.

When the book was published last year Wenger said it was part of the process of accepting his time as a manager was over - and while he starts off by reiterating that, there is a shift.

“Overall we have to accept that our days come to an end at some stage,” Wenger says before adding: “I don’t rule it out but I am completely focused (on Fifa) and I don’t worry too much about the rest.

“There are always people who say ‘you are too old’ so at the time maybe I thought they were right but I am in good shape and I have not completely decided not to do it any more.”

There was, as well, a long debate as to whether he had stayed too long at Arsenal before stepping down in May 2018. “I think people are quite harsh about the last years,” Wenger says.

“In 2016 we finished second in the league. Leicester won but other teams were behind Leicester as well, and Leicester only lost three games. In 2017 we did not qualify for the top four for the first time in 20 years but we got 75 points.

“People don’t realise. We won the (FA) cup against Chelsea who had just won the championship and had the chance of winning the double. And after, in 2018, we lost the League Cup final against (Manchester) City, we lost in the semi-final of the Europa League against Atletico Madrid but by just one goal.”

Wenger admits in his autobiography it was a “very lonely, very painful” separation in that final season, when Arsenal finished sixth, and he adds now that he felt “a bit lost” on the first morning after leaving the club before his “strong mind” took over and “I could accept it”.

“Arsenal will be in my heart forever but, yes, I focus on my next life now,” Wenger says. “Look, I gave the best years of my career to develop what I think is important – the stadium and pay it back and put the club in a position where it was capable of facing the future and had the potential to do well. At the end of the day, above all, we won and what I am most proud about is putting the club in that position.”

All along he kept his principles on how a club should be run and, also, on how football should be played. “I was strong because I had in my mind that I was working for something that was bigger than me and I wanted to do that well and put the club in a position where it can do well,” Wenger says.

“That is part of my character. I was, as well, the longest-serving manager ever in Monaco (seven years) but nobody speaks about that. I need to work somewhere where I can be part of something that is bigger than me and contribute to it.”

Famously Wenger never broke a contract. “Never,” he reiterates and that led him to turning down a host of leading clubs around Europe and, on several occasions, the French and English national teams.

“Yes, I think so,” he says when asked if 2016, after Roy Hodgson left, was the last time the Football Association came calling before he offers a ringing endorsement of Gareth Southgate.

“I like him,” Wenger says. “Anyway all the managers who last long – Guardiola, Klopp, Ferguson – they care as much about the human being as the player.” Wenger also.

He is pleased that there is now more technical, attacking football in the Premier League. “I see more positivity. Before there was more kicking and I must say the media allowed that. The Var has brought more respect for the offensive game,” Wenger says.

We allowed kicking? “Sometimes the more technical guys were kicked. Why? It was not very encouraging. We have moved forward from that,” he adds, ruefully.

“We (Arsenal) always tried. It was a frustration sometimes. When I look back at players like (Jack) Wilshere, (Aaron) Ramsey who have been injured early in their career and when you are a manager you feel very responsible for that.”

One trend he does not like, however, is how much money young players earn early in their careers. “Before it was around 30 (years of age), after that around 25, after that 22,” Wenger explains.

“Now the speculation and the huge amounts of money are about players who might be one day players. That is where football goes on dangerous ground. Should we reward the people who produce quality? Yes, but when it is about players who might one day do that then it’s much, much more dangerous.”

After a long career at a club like Arsenal it was probably only a job such as Fifa’s “chief of football global development” with its vast remit that could satisfy him and Wenger chuckles again when asked what it was like sitting behind his desk on his first day at the headquarters in Geneva.

“It’s a good question,” Wenger says. “I was sitting and thinking exactly that: ‘What can I do to push the football world forward?’”

So there are three main tasks: education, “influencing the quality of the competitions” and the laws of the game and Wenger has made headlines in recent weeks with his highly controversial plan to have the World Cup every two years. “It is only my proposal!” Wenger protests. “I don’t make that decision. It’s for the whole football world to decide.”

His motivation, he insists, is just that: for the “whole” world to benefit. “Look I grew up in a village (in Alsace, eastern France) where I had no coach until the age of 19. I have managed many people who came out of Africa and had very few opportunities,” Wenger says.

“Personally I would say that every talent deserves a chance in life and today that is not the case. If you were born with the same talent but you were born in Yaounde, London or Hanoi you have not the same chance to become a great football player. You can say that about life in general but if you are responsible to give everybody the same chance then you have to worry about it. You don’t have to accept it.”

Wenger is aware that some of his ideas may sound naïve and certainly idealistic and that it is a leap to talk about education and opportunity to a biennial World Cup but he is unabashed and, also, insists he carried out his due diligence before joining Fifa. He was well-aware of its tarnished reputation.

“Yes, but it is completely different,” Wenger argues. “First of all, all the finances are transparent now. It has completely changed. The votes for the big competitions are transparent and rated by an independent company… The suspicion that existed was of course explained by all the stories but when you work inside you have a completely different image.”

Wenger once said “football has a responsibility in the world today”. Does he still feel that?

“I believe it more than ever,” he emphatically insists. “In my life football has become more important every day and I would say today football has a worldwide responsibility. It can do a lot for the world and it’s time we faced that. And I still have the same passion for the game. My life is always dictated by football. I would say that every day of my life is organised around football.”

Really? Every day?

“Every day, of course,” Wenger, who still plays, maintains. “Every day. In what way? I get up in the morning and look to see what game is on and then I organise my daily life to watch a game I want to watch and I never get bored. There is always something interesting that happens at some stage you just have to be patient enough. I have still the same enthusiasm for it and I will keep that.”

But why?

“Sorry?” Wenger says, sounding confused. “I just want to say and I said it in my book: I know the intensity of my desire and my passion and I cannot really explain why. It certainly must be linked to my childhood. It must come from there. I grew up in a little pub (his parents owned a bar) where the headquarters of the local football club was and that is where it came from.

“Now the internet is the world. It’s a virtual world but that is where children look. When I grew up my world was my village and the players who played were my heroes. They were poor but for me they were heroes and you never lose that feeling.”

Football will never be replaced in his life and Wenger, who gets up at 6am every day to exercise before breakfast, admiringly tells the story of a friend of his who died last week aged 85 and who played his last match when he was almost 80.

“You mean to play golf or tennis?” Wenger says. “No, I am still in the passion (for football). I still have that competitive instinct.”
cc @Makingtrax
 

Makingtrax

Worships in the house of Wenger 🙏
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saliba

Arsène Wenger has a small confession to make. After all those years of saying “I didn’t see it” when it came to controversial on-field incidents involving his Arsenal team then, well, the truth is he often did.

“At the start maybe, yes, but after that when it became about the sense of humour - I thought ‘okay, maybe I will go with it’. It was a good way to get out of embarrassing situations sometimes!” Wenger says.

When he uttered it in front of the television cameras there was often a wry smile on his face. It would provoke a laugh from the interviewer. “And then you would get away with it,” Wenger adds, chuckling himself.

That “dry sense of humour” is one of the “qualities” Wenger likes best about England, a country he feels a deep affinity for after his 22 years at Arsenal – “I married well” – and a place “of passion, passion for the game and passion is linked to intensity and emotion and that’s what we had in common”.

That passion is evident in Wenger’s autobiography - 'My Life in Red and White' - which is the winner of The Telegraph Sports Book of the Year Award and also the Sports Bestseller of the Year Award. In a wide-ranging interview he discusses how daunted he was by his new role at Fifa, how he is pleased there is less “kicking” now in the Premier League and how the assessment of his final few years at Arsenal was “harsh”.

There is also a warning about the huge amounts of money being paid to young players – and even a hint that, maybe, he might just be lured back into management once last time. After all, he confirms, he was offered the England manager’s job as recently as 2016 after the debacle at the Euros.

But first the process of writing the book. “It was what life is about. Highs and lows. Rejection and love. Winning and losing. But, overall, it was intense,” Wenger says and it feels that is the only way that the 71-year-old can live his life.

When the book was published last year Wenger said it was part of the process of accepting his time as a manager was over - and while he starts off by reiterating that, there is a shift.

“Overall we have to accept that our days come to an end at some stage,” Wenger says before adding: “I don’t rule it out but I am completely focused (on Fifa) and I don’t worry too much about the rest.

“There are always people who say ‘you are too old’ so at the time maybe I thought they were right but I am in good shape and I have not completely decided not to do it any more.”

There was, as well, a long debate as to whether he had stayed too long at Arsenal before stepping down in May 2018. “I think people are quite harsh about the last years,” Wenger says.

“In 2016 we finished second in the league. Leicester won but other teams were behind Leicester as well, and Leicester only lost three games. In 2017 we did not qualify for the top four for the first time in 20 years but we got 75 points.

“People don’t realise. We won the (FA) cup against Chelsea who had just won the championship and had the chance of winning the double. And after, in 2018, we lost the League Cup final against (Manchester) City, we lost in the semi-final of the Europa League against Atletico Madrid but by just one goal.”

Wenger admits in his autobiography it was a “very lonely, very painful” separation in that final season, when Arsenal finished sixth, and he adds now that he felt “a bit lost” on the first morning after leaving the club before his “strong mind” took over and “I could accept it”.

“Arsenal will be in my heart forever but, yes, I focus on my next life now,” Wenger says. “Look, I gave the best years of my career to develop what I think is important – the stadium and pay it back and put the club in a position where it was capable of facing the future and had the potential to do well. At the end of the day, above all, we won and what I am most proud about is putting the club in that position.”

All along he kept his principles on how a club should be run and, also, on how football should be played. “I was strong because I had in my mind that I was working for something that was bigger than me and I wanted to do that well and put the club in a position where it can do well,” Wenger says.

“That is part of my character. I was, as well, the longest-serving manager ever in Monaco (seven years) but nobody speaks about that. I need to work somewhere where I can be part of something that is bigger than me and contribute to it.”

Famously Wenger never broke a contract. “Never,” he reiterates and that led him to turning down a host of leading clubs around Europe and, on several occasions, the French and English national teams.

“Yes, I think so,” he says when asked if 2016, after Roy Hodgson left, was the last time the Football Association came calling before he offers a ringing endorsement of Gareth Southgate.

“I like him,” Wenger says. “Anyway all the managers who last long – Guardiola, Klopp, Ferguson – they care as much about the human being as the player.” Wenger also.

He is pleased that there is now more technical, attacking football in the Premier League. “I see more positivity. Before there was more kicking and I must say the media allowed that. The Var has brought more respect for the offensive game,” Wenger says.

We allowed kicking? “Sometimes the more technical guys were kicked. Why? It was not very encouraging. We have moved forward from that,” he adds, ruefully.

“We (Arsenal) always tried. It was a frustration sometimes. When I look back at players like (Jack) Wilshere, (Aaron) Ramsey who have been injured early in their career and when you are a manager you feel very responsible for that.”

One trend he does not like, however, is how much money young players earn early in their careers. “Before it was around 30 (years of age), after that around 25, after that 22,” Wenger explains.

“Now the speculation and the huge amounts of money are about players who might be one day players. That is where football goes on dangerous ground. Should we reward the people who produce quality? Yes, but when it is about players who might one day do that then it’s much, much more dangerous.”

After a long career at a club like Arsenal it was probably only a job such as Fifa’s “chief of football global development” with its vast remit that could satisfy him and Wenger chuckles again when asked what it was like sitting behind his desk on his first day at the headquarters in Geneva.

“It’s a good question,” Wenger says. “I was sitting and thinking exactly that: ‘What can I do to push the football world forward?’”

So there are three main tasks: education, “influencing the quality of the competitions” and the laws of the game and Wenger has made headlines in recent weeks with his highly controversial plan to have the World Cup every two years. “It is only my proposal!” Wenger protests. “I don’t make that decision. It’s for the whole football world to decide.”

His motivation, he insists, is just that: for the “whole” world to benefit. “Look I grew up in a village (in Alsace, eastern France) where I had no coach until the age of 19. I have managed many people who came out of Africa and had very few opportunities,” Wenger says.

“Personally I would say that every talent deserves a chance in life and today that is not the case. If you were born with the same talent but you were born in Yaounde, London or Hanoi you have not the same chance to become a great football player. You can say that about life in general but if you are responsible to give everybody the same chance then you have to worry about it. You don’t have to accept it.”

Wenger is aware that some of his ideas may sound naïve and certainly idealistic and that it is a leap to talk about education and opportunity to a biennial World Cup but he is unabashed and, also, insists he carried out his due diligence before joining Fifa. He was well-aware of its tarnished reputation.

“Yes, but it is completely different,” Wenger argues. “First of all, all the finances are transparent now. It has completely changed. The votes for the big competitions are transparent and rated by an independent company… The suspicion that existed was of course explained by all the stories but when you work inside you have a completely different image.”

Wenger once said “football has a responsibility in the world today”. Does he still feel that?

“I believe it more than ever,” he emphatically insists. “In my life football has become more important every day and I would say today football has a worldwide responsibility. It can do a lot for the world and it’s time we faced that. And I still have the same passion for the game. My life is always dictated by football. I would say that every day of my life is organised around football.”

Really? Every day?

“Every day, of course,” Wenger, who still plays, maintains. “Every day. In what way? I get up in the morning and look to see what game is on and then I organise my daily life to watch a game I want to watch and I never get bored. There is always something interesting that happens at some stage you just have to be patient enough. I have still the same enthusiasm for it and I will keep that.”

But why?

“Sorry?” Wenger says, sounding confused. “I just want to say and I said it in my book: I know the intensity of my desire and my passion and I cannot really explain why. It certainly must be linked to my childhood. It must come from there. I grew up in a little pub (his parents owned a bar) where the headquarters of the local football club was and that is where it came from.

“Now the internet is the world. It’s a virtual world but that is where children look. When I grew up my world was my village and the players who played were my heroes. They were poor but for me they were heroes and you never lose that feeling.”

Football will never be replaced in his life and Wenger, who gets up at 6am every day to exercise before breakfast, admiringly tells the story of a friend of his who died last week aged 85 and who played his last match when he was almost 80.

“You mean to play golf or tennis?” Wenger says. “No, I am still in the passion (for football). I still have that competitive instinct.”
cc @Makingtrax
Still gets up before 6am every morning and exercises before breakfast. Puts me to shame. :lol:
 

TinFish

Well-Known Member

Arsène Wenger has a small confession to make. After all those years of saying “I didn’t see it” when it came to controversial on-field incidents involving his Arsenal team then, well, the truth is he often did.

“At the start maybe, yes, but after that when it became about the sense of humour - I thought ‘okay, maybe I will go with it’. It was a good way to get out of embarrassing situations sometimes!” Wenger says.

When he uttered it in front of the television cameras there was often a wry smile on his face. It would provoke a laugh from the interviewer. “And then you would get away with it,” Wenger adds, chuckling himself.

That “dry sense of humour” is one of the “qualities” Wenger likes best about England, a country he feels a deep affinity for after his 22 years at Arsenal – “I married well” – and a place “of passion, passion for the game and passion is linked to intensity and emotion and that’s what we had in common”.

That passion is evident in Wenger’s autobiography - 'My Life in Red and White' - which is the winner of The Telegraph Sports Book of the Year Award and also the Sports Bestseller of the Year Award. In a wide-ranging interview he discusses how daunted he was by his new role at Fifa, how he is pleased there is less “kicking” now in the Premier League and how the assessment of his final few years at Arsenal was “harsh”.

There is also a warning about the huge amounts of money being paid to young players – and even a hint that, maybe, he might just be lured back into management once last time. After all, he confirms, he was offered the England manager’s job as recently as 2016 after the debacle at the Euros.

But first the process of writing the book. “It was what life is about. Highs and lows. Rejection and love. Winning and losing. But, overall, it was intense,” Wenger says and it feels that is the only way that the 71-year-old can live his life.

When the book was published last year Wenger said it was part of the process of accepting his time as a manager was over - and while he starts off by reiterating that, there is a shift.

“Overall we have to accept that our days come to an end at some stage,” Wenger says before adding: “I don’t rule it out but I am completely focused (on Fifa) and I don’t worry too much about the rest.

“There are always people who say ‘you are too old’ so at the time maybe I thought they were right but I am in good shape and I have not completely decided not to do it any more.”

There was, as well, a long debate as to whether he had stayed too long at Arsenal before stepping down in May 2018. “I think people are quite harsh about the last years,” Wenger says.

“In 2016 we finished second in the league. Leicester won but other teams were behind Leicester as well, and Leicester only lost three games. In 2017 we did not qualify for the top four for the first time in 20 years but we got 75 points.

“People don’t realise. We won the (FA) cup against Chelsea who had just won the championship and had the chance of winning the double. And after, in 2018, we lost the League Cup final against (Manchester) City, we lost in the semi-final of the Europa League against Atletico Madrid but by just one goal.”

Wenger admits in his autobiography it was a “very lonely, very painful” separation in that final season, when Arsenal finished sixth, and he adds now that he felt “a bit lost” on the first morning after leaving the club before his “strong mind” took over and “I could accept it”.

“Arsenal will be in my heart forever but, yes, I focus on my next life now,” Wenger says. “Look, I gave the best years of my career to develop what I think is important – the stadium and pay it back and put the club in a position where it was capable of facing the future and had the potential to do well. At the end of the day, above all, we won and what I am most proud about is putting the club in that position.”

All along he kept his principles on how a club should be run and, also, on how football should be played. “I was strong because I had in my mind that I was working for something that was bigger than me and I wanted to do that well and put the club in a position where it can do well,” Wenger says.

“That is part of my character. I was, as well, the longest-serving manager ever in Monaco (seven years) but nobody speaks about that. I need to work somewhere where I can be part of something that is bigger than me and contribute to it.”

Famously Wenger never broke a contract. “Never,” he reiterates and that led him to turning down a host of leading clubs around Europe and, on several occasions, the French and English national teams.

“Yes, I think so,” he says when asked if 2016, after Roy Hodgson left, was the last time the Football Association came calling before he offers a ringing endorsement of Gareth Southgate.

“I like him,” Wenger says. “Anyway all the managers who last long – Guardiola, Klopp, Ferguson – they care as much about the human being as the player.” Wenger also.

He is pleased that there is now more technical, attacking football in the Premier League. “I see more positivity. Before there was more kicking and I must say the media allowed that. The Var has brought more respect for the offensive game,” Wenger says.

We allowed kicking? “Sometimes the more technical guys were kicked. Why? It was not very encouraging. We have moved forward from that,” he adds, ruefully.

“We (Arsenal) always tried. It was a frustration sometimes. When I look back at players like (Jack) Wilshere, (Aaron) Ramsey who have been injured early in their career and when you are a manager you feel very responsible for that.”

One trend he does not like, however, is how much money young players earn early in their careers. “Before it was around 30 (years of age), after that around 25, after that 22,” Wenger explains.

“Now the speculation and the huge amounts of money are about players who might be one day players. That is where football goes on dangerous ground. Should we reward the people who produce quality? Yes, but when it is about players who might one day do that then it’s much, much more dangerous.”

After a long career at a club like Arsenal it was probably only a job such as Fifa’s “chief of football global development” with its vast remit that could satisfy him and Wenger chuckles again when asked what it was like sitting behind his desk on his first day at the headquarters in Geneva.

“It’s a good question,” Wenger says. “I was sitting and thinking exactly that: ‘What can I do to push the football world forward?’”

So there are three main tasks: education, “influencing the quality of the competitions” and the laws of the game and Wenger has made headlines in recent weeks with his highly controversial plan to have the World Cup every two years. “It is only my proposal!” Wenger protests. “I don’t make that decision. It’s for the whole football world to decide.”

His motivation, he insists, is just that: for the “whole” world to benefit. “Look I grew up in a village (in Alsace, eastern France) where I had no coach until the age of 19. I have managed many people who came out of Africa and had very few opportunities,” Wenger says.

“Personally I would say that every talent deserves a chance in life and today that is not the case. If you were born with the same talent but you were born in Yaounde, London or Hanoi you have not the same chance to become a great football player. You can say that about life in general but if you are responsible to give everybody the same chance then you have to worry about it. You don’t have to accept it.”

Wenger is aware that some of his ideas may sound naïve and certainly idealistic and that it is a leap to talk about education and opportunity to a biennial World Cup but he is unabashed and, also, insists he carried out his due diligence before joining Fifa. He was well-aware of its tarnished reputation.

“Yes, but it is completely different,” Wenger argues. “First of all, all the finances are transparent now. It has completely changed. The votes for the big competitions are transparent and rated by an independent company… The suspicion that existed was of course explained by all the stories but when you work inside you have a completely different image.”

Wenger once said “football has a responsibility in the world today”. Does he still feel that?

“I believe it more than ever,” he emphatically insists. “In my life football has become more important every day and I would say today football has a worldwide responsibility. It can do a lot for the world and it’s time we faced that. And I still have the same passion for the game. My life is always dictated by football. I would say that every day of my life is organised around football.”

Really? Every day?

“Every day, of course,” Wenger, who still plays, maintains. “Every day. In what way? I get up in the morning and look to see what game is on and then I organise my daily life to watch a game I want to watch and I never get bored. There is always something interesting that happens at some stage you just have to be patient enough. I have still the same enthusiasm for it and I will keep that.”

But why?

“Sorry?” Wenger says, sounding confused. “I just want to say and I said it in my book: I know the intensity of my desire and my passion and I cannot really explain why. It certainly must be linked to my childhood. It must come from there. I grew up in a little pub (his parents owned a bar) where the headquarters of the local football club was and that is where it came from.

“Now the internet is the world. It’s a virtual world but that is where children look. When I grew up my world was my village and the players who played were my heroes. They were poor but for me they were heroes and you never lose that feeling.”

Football will never be replaced in his life and Wenger, who gets up at 6am every day to exercise before breakfast, admiringly tells the story of a friend of his who died last week aged 85 and who played his last match when he was almost 80.

“You mean to play golf or tennis?” Wenger says. “No, I am still in the passion (for football). I still have that competitive instinct.”
cc @Makingtrax

“Arsenal will be in my heart forever but, yes, I focus on my next life now,” Wenger says. “Look, I gave the best years of my career to develop what I think is important – the stadium and pay it back and put the club in a position where it was capable of facing the future and had the potential to do well. At the end of the day, above all, we won and what I am most proud about is putting the club in that position.”

This is the part that gets to me the most.

The man, although should have done better than what he's already achieved at Arsenal - always put the club in the best position possible.

We never lost our class, our morals and our financial freedom. As soon as he left, we pissed his legacy away by taking on corrupt staff such as Raul who used Arsenals financial superiority to sanction ludicrous and corrupt deals to line his own pockets. Arteta, Edu & co. have also been spending massively on dross and extending player contracts that have no double put a massive dent into everything Wenger worked hard to achieve. Not to forget playing the most boring football in the league.

I'm sure I've mentioned it several times here already, but when i think about our current situation compared to our past, it makes my blood boil!
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England

https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2021/09/21074319/Arsène-Wenger-should-he-have-left-Arsenal-in-the-manner-he-did-1024x683.jpg
By Amy Lawrence

“Look after the values of this club.”
That was the enduring message. Those were the words with which Arsène Wenger chose to sign off his farewell speech. The applause from the Emirates crowd gushed with feeling. However awkward, and at times vicious, the atmosphere at Arsenal home games had been in the latter stages of his long relationship with the club, every single person inside the stadium knew exactly what he meant and how much of himself he gave to representing those values.

From the day he arrived in 1996, Wenger endeavoured to carry himself and his team with a certain style. It brought a modern dimension to the idea known as ‘Arsenal class’ which had, since Herbert Chapman’s grand era of sweeping success in the 1930s, been held dear.

In truth, Wenger was entitled to query where that concept disappeared to when the decision was suddenly made for him to leave Arsenal.
That seminal moment, pushed by then-chief executive Ivan Gazidis and backed by the club’s owners the Kroenkes, was forced upon the Frenchman in a manner he didn’t expect. The announcement was made before that 2017-18 season was out, while there was still football to be played and unwelcome exposure to the glare of extra publicity to absorb. That would never have been Wenger’s choice. After 22 years, they should have given him more of a say in how the exit was handled.
As a consequence, here we are in a situation where Wenger, the most successful Arsenal manager in their history, prefers to stay away. In more than three years, he has never been back.

Initially, there was logic in the twin reasons — his preference for time to get over the end of such a deep love affair and his desire not to put pressure on his successor. But the longer time goes by, the odder it seems he should be so conspicuously absent.
It is unarguably sad, but is also, arguably, not in the best interests of the club.
Did it really have to be this way? Was it necessary to cut the cord in such a complete way?

Reflecting on the way he left as a Sliding Doors moment, there might have been a different reality. Had the end of his managerial stint been managed more collaboratively, the opportunity to offer Wenger a different position – on the board, or as a president or ambassador or technical advisor or whatever title and responsibility was most agreeable – would have stayed open. People close to him don’t doubt that these were options he would have considered.

The Arsenal hierarchy at the time appeared to feel a clean break was a better idea. But the way the post-Wenger rebuild has gone, with increased slippage towards mediocrity, makes it worthwhile to wonder whether the club would be in a stronger position with his expertise and combination of sporting, political and social stature in the game helping them with the big-decision making. If he walks into any room, to talk to anyone connected to the game, they listen.

The three men holding the reins of the club are all relatively young and, to a degree, learning this as they go.

Mikel Arteta is in his first managerial role, Edu as technical director is finding his way in European football having previously had a similar role for Brazil’s Corinthians, and Vinai Venkatesham is new to the role as sole chief exec having worked his way up through various positions at Arsenal. The board above them is notably short of football experience to offer a guiding hand.

It is not hard to imagine how Wenger’s presence around the hierarchy could potentially carry a significant impact.

GettyImages-1197877665-scaled.jpg


Bust of Arsène Wenger in the directors’ entrance at the Emirates Stadium, but there is still no statue of him at Arsenal’s ground (Photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

If and when the time comes for Arsenal to think about whether they need to make changes in senior positions, who in the current structure would be the person equipped to make those calls? (Don’t all shout at once).

The comparison with how Manchester United integrated a post-retirement Sir Alex Ferguson is useful in that it reflects some of the potential worries (such as Ferguson recommending David Moyes to be his successor, which did not work out) and also the benefits. At United, there is an obvious ceremonial role but Ferguson is also very present and there when needed to be of assistance to the club.

He has the sense to know when to be more available to certain managers and when to take more of a back-seat, as was the case with Jose Mourinho and Louis van Gaal, who were Ed Woodward choices and clearly are both their own men and strong characters. However, Ferguson has been invaluable to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. They chat regularly, and Ferguson attends the training ground at times to cast an eye over things with Solskjaer, 48, and 40-year-old first-team coach Michael Carrick. He is there at every match in the directors’ box too, to lend that presence and authority, and offer sound words where needed. Notably, he was key in the recent re-signing of Cristiano Ronaldo because of their close relationship, and has been involved with meetings at Carrington to try to entice other prospective players.

Wenger has taken up a senior position with FIFA, as chief of global football development. It is a role he enjoys as it keeps him involved and motivated by the game. He can use his considerable knowledge and intelligence to serve football. Some of his moves are controversial, such as the proposal to move to a biennial World Cup, but nobody can doubt he possesses a rare volume of football clout that would be invaluable to Arsenal.

Few would argue that his two-decade tenure as their manager should have continued for much longer than it did. With the team dipping, change was reasonable — or, according to some of the most critical voices, overdue. The club were keen to re-organise a system that empowered one man to run the club in a way that felt old-fashioned compared to contemporary structural trends. Given the scale of increased finances, the growing influence of agents and representatives, the bombardment of data and analysis, the range of medical opinions in high performance, the manager’s job had, by definition, mushroomed. Having a say on everything was almost impossible and the trick, in Wenger’s later years, was to listen to an army of experts and filter out the most important information that could help him to win the next match.

The behind-the-scenes dynamics really began to shift when Wenger lost his friend and confidante David Dein, who he worked so closely with. Dein’s 2007 departure was effectively start of the slippery slope towards the decline.

When Wenger left, in came a new manager redefined as head coach (Unai Emery) while the executive team had new heads of football operations (Raul Sanllehi) and recruitment (Sven Mislintat) operating to assist the CEO (Gazidis, briefly, before he left for AC Milan). This plan crumbled and Emery, Sanllehi and Mislintat are now all gone too.

But in that immediate post-Wenger era, there was another way of engineering change – one that would include him.

The club chose a path that closed the book on Wenger. But they could have gone down a different route, one allowing them to integrate and lean on one of the greatest footballing minds, and his values; a man they were lucky enough to have associated with their club.

Some 25 years after joining and transforming Arsenal, the statue designed in his honour is still to be unveiled. They have not named a stand as a nod to his work, either.
His presence exists in the ideas he brought to the club as a barometer for where they are now.

But it could, and should, be so much more.
Is it too late? Is there the will to mend some broken bridges? Can this estranged relationship be put right?
At the very top of Arsenal, these are questions worthy of attention.
 

MauveGunner

Well-Known Member

Country: Belgium

Player:Rice

Arsène Wenger has a small confession to make. After all those years of saying “I didn’t see it” when it came to controversial on-field incidents involving his Arsenal team then, well, the truth is he often did.

“At the start maybe, yes, but after that when it became about the sense of humour - I thought ‘okay, maybe I will go with it’. It was a good way to get out of embarrassing situations sometimes!” Wenger says.

When he uttered it in front of the television cameras there was often a wry smile on his face. It would provoke a laugh from the interviewer. “And then you would get away with it,” Wenger adds, chuckling himself.

That “dry sense of humour” is one of the “qualities” Wenger likes best about England, a country he feels a deep affinity for after his 22 years at Arsenal – “I married well” – and a place “of passion, passion for the game and passion is linked to intensity and emotion and that’s what we had in common”.

That passion is evident in Wenger’s autobiography - 'My Life in Red and White' - which is the winner of The Telegraph Sports Book of the Year Award and also the Sports Bestseller of the Year Award. In a wide-ranging interview he discusses how daunted he was by his new role at Fifa, how he is pleased there is less “kicking” now in the Premier League and how the assessment of his final few years at Arsenal was “harsh”.

There is also a warning about the huge amounts of money being paid to young players – and even a hint that, maybe, he might just be lured back into management once last time. After all, he confirms, he was offered the England manager’s job as recently as 2016 after the debacle at the Euros.

But first the process of writing the book. “It was what life is about. Highs and lows. Rejection and love. Winning and losing. But, overall, it was intense,” Wenger says and it feels that is the only way that the 71-year-old can live his life.

When the book was published last year Wenger said it was part of the process of accepting his time as a manager was over - and while he starts off by reiterating that, there is a shift.

“Overall we have to accept that our days come to an end at some stage,” Wenger says before adding: “I don’t rule it out but I am completely focused (on Fifa) and I don’t worry too much about the rest.

“There are always people who say ‘you are too old’ so at the time maybe I thought they were right but I am in good shape and I have not completely decided not to do it any more.”

There was, as well, a long debate as to whether he had stayed too long at Arsenal before stepping down in May 2018. “I think people are quite harsh about the last years,” Wenger says.

“In 2016 we finished second in the league. Leicester won but other teams were behind Leicester as well, and Leicester only lost three games. In 2017 we did not qualify for the top four for the first time in 20 years but we got 75 points.

“People don’t realise. We won the (FA) cup against Chelsea who had just won the championship and had the chance of winning the double. And after, in 2018, we lost the League Cup final against (Manchester) City, we lost in the semi-final of the Europa League against Atletico Madrid but by just one goal.”

Wenger admits in his autobiography it was a “very lonely, very painful” separation in that final season, when Arsenal finished sixth, and he adds now that he felt “a bit lost” on the first morning after leaving the club before his “strong mind” took over and “I could accept it”.

“Arsenal will be in my heart forever but, yes, I focus on my next life now,” Wenger says. “Look, I gave the best years of my career to develop what I think is important – the stadium and pay it back and put the club in a position where it was capable of facing the future and had the potential to do well. At the end of the day, above all, we won and what I am most proud about is putting the club in that position.”

All along he kept his principles on how a club should be run and, also, on how football should be played. “I was strong because I had in my mind that I was working for something that was bigger than me and I wanted to do that well and put the club in a position where it can do well,” Wenger says.

“That is part of my character. I was, as well, the longest-serving manager ever in Monaco (seven years) but nobody speaks about that. I need to work somewhere where I can be part of something that is bigger than me and contribute to it.”

Famously Wenger never broke a contract. “Never,” he reiterates and that led him to turning down a host of leading clubs around Europe and, on several occasions, the French and English national teams.

“Yes, I think so,” he says when asked if 2016, after Roy Hodgson left, was the last time the Football Association came calling before he offers a ringing endorsement of Gareth Southgate.

“I like him,” Wenger says. “Anyway all the managers who last long – Guardiola, Klopp, Ferguson – they care as much about the human being as the player.” Wenger also.

He is pleased that there is now more technical, attacking football in the Premier League. “I see more positivity. Before there was more kicking and I must say the media allowed that. The Var has brought more respect for the offensive game,” Wenger says.

We allowed kicking? “Sometimes the more technical guys were kicked. Why? It was not very encouraging. We have moved forward from that,” he adds, ruefully.

“We (Arsenal) always tried. It was a frustration sometimes. When I look back at players like (Jack) Wilshere, (Aaron) Ramsey who have been injured early in their career and when you are a manager you feel very responsible for that.”

One trend he does not like, however, is how much money young players earn early in their careers. “Before it was around 30 (years of age), after that around 25, after that 22,” Wenger explains.

“Now the speculation and the huge amounts of money are about players who might be one day players. That is where football goes on dangerous ground. Should we reward the people who produce quality? Yes, but when it is about players who might one day do that then it’s much, much more dangerous.”

After a long career at a club like Arsenal it was probably only a job such as Fifa’s “chief of football global development” with its vast remit that could satisfy him and Wenger chuckles again when asked what it was like sitting behind his desk on his first day at the headquarters in Geneva.

“It’s a good question,” Wenger says. “I was sitting and thinking exactly that: ‘What can I do to push the football world forward?’”

So there are three main tasks: education, “influencing the quality of the competitions” and the laws of the game and Wenger has made headlines in recent weeks with his highly controversial plan to have the World Cup every two years. “It is only my proposal!” Wenger protests. “I don’t make that decision. It’s for the whole football world to decide.”

His motivation, he insists, is just that: for the “whole” world to benefit. “Look I grew up in a village (in Alsace, eastern France) where I had no coach until the age of 19. I have managed many people who came out of Africa and had very few opportunities,” Wenger says.

“Personally I would say that every talent deserves a chance in life and today that is not the case. If you were born with the same talent but you were born in Yaounde, London or Hanoi you have not the same chance to become a great football player. You can say that about life in general but if you are responsible to give everybody the same chance then you have to worry about it. You don’t have to accept it.”

Wenger is aware that some of his ideas may sound naïve and certainly idealistic and that it is a leap to talk about education and opportunity to a biennial World Cup but he is unabashed and, also, insists he carried out his due diligence before joining Fifa. He was well-aware of its tarnished reputation.

“Yes, but it is completely different,” Wenger argues. “First of all, all the finances are transparent now. It has completely changed. The votes for the big competitions are transparent and rated by an independent company… The suspicion that existed was of course explained by all the stories but when you work inside you have a completely different image.”

Wenger once said “football has a responsibility in the world today”. Does he still feel that?

“I believe it more than ever,” he emphatically insists. “In my life football has become more important every day and I would say today football has a worldwide responsibility. It can do a lot for the world and it’s time we faced that. And I still have the same passion for the game. My life is always dictated by football. I would say that every day of my life is organised around football.”

Really? Every day?

“Every day, of course,” Wenger, who still plays, maintains. “Every day. In what way? I get up in the morning and look to see what game is on and then I organise my daily life to watch a game I want to watch and I never get bored. There is always something interesting that happens at some stage you just have to be patient enough. I have still the same enthusiasm for it and I will keep that.”

But why?

“Sorry?” Wenger says, sounding confused. “I just want to say and I said it in my book: I know the intensity of my desire and my passion and I cannot really explain why. It certainly must be linked to my childhood. It must come from there. I grew up in a little pub (his parents owned a bar) where the headquarters of the local football club was and that is where it came from.

“Now the internet is the world. It’s a virtual world but that is where children look. When I grew up my world was my village and the players who played were my heroes. They were poor but for me they were heroes and you never lose that feeling.”

Football will never be replaced in his life and Wenger, who gets up at 6am every day to exercise before breakfast, admiringly tells the story of a friend of his who died last week aged 85 and who played his last match when he was almost 80.

“You mean to play golf or tennis?” Wenger says. “No, I am still in the passion (for football). I still have that competitive instinct.”
cc @Makingtrax
That's my manager. Sheer class and gentleman to the bone.

And while reading, I can just hear his voice in my head.
 

albakos

Arséne Wenger: "I will miss you"
Administrator

Country: Kosova

Player:Saka
Merci but your book was awful
No, it was not.
It was a nice story about his life and how he reached his goals.

Too bad that the fans and the media didn't get to make headline stories out of it.
It was never the intention of this book to go into unveiling the dirty laundry or the backroom politics.
 

UpTheGunnerz

Vrei sa pleci dar una una iei

Player:Elneny
No, it was not.
It was a nice story about his life and how he reached his goals.

Too bad that the fans and the media didn't get to make headline stories out of it.
It was never the intention of this book to go into unveiling the dirty laundry or the backroom politics.

Fair point, but I don’t think the book did a great job in conveying any of that either, IMO it was poorly written. Wenger is a fascinating man, I guess my expectations were a bit too high. Or maybe autobios are not my thing in general
 

Vanpayslip

Active Member
May be this is the many beers I have drink today talking but Arsène is still the soul of this club. Give us two good fullbacks and two technically good wide players and we’re good.

This is modern football and it has new ideas and ways of working. But it might as well have been Lauren, Pires and Ljunberg out there today. It was a blast from the past. I respect the guy but in no way condone how his reign ended. I struggle to reconcile his legacy. But the guy was a genius back in the day. It’s clear to see that two decades after he was implementing new ideas into English football that the team smashes it using the same ideas on full backs and two wide players that he had all that time ago.
 

SA Gunner

Hates Tierney And Wants Him Sold Immediately
Moderator

Country: South Africa

Player:Nketiah
1941678-40829045-2560-1440.jpg


Wishing the LEGEND himself a happy birthday today.

I think it need you to leave us, for us and the rest of the footballing world to understand, what a legend you are in the game.

Happy Birthday Arsène, may you see many more.
 

Jury

A-M's drunk uncle
No, it was not.
It was a nice story about his life and how he reached his goals.

Too bad that the fans and the media didn't get to make headline stories out of it.
It was never the intention of this book to go into unveiling the dirty laundry or the backroom politics.
For years before the release, Wenger was answering a lot of prying questions from the media with very teasing answers which implied strongly that a lot would be revealed in the book. While just reading about his early life and motivations was always going to be pleasurable for many like yourself, it didn't deliver on what he more or less promised. That's just how it is. Maybe he thought better of it and I don't blame him because he has quite the reputation to keep intact after all these years, but it just wasn't anything like what the majority were set up believe it was going to be, and that's down to him.
 

albakos

Arséne Wenger: "I will miss you"
Administrator

Country: Kosova

Player:Saka
....which implied strongly that a lot would be revealed in the book. While just reading about his early life and motivations was always going to be pleasurable for many like yourself, it didn't deliver on what he more or less promised. That's just how it is.


Oh well.

Everyone can interpret the book in their own way. I said that it wasn't anything like the public expected it to be and that is probably exactly what Arsène wanted it to be.

A simple story about his life, his success and that's it.

I liked the book and learned few more details about his love for our club.
He is an absolute legend of this club.
 

GDeep™

League is very weak
For years before the release, Wenger was answering a lot of prying questions from the media with very teasing answers which implied strongly that a lot would be revealed in the book. While just reading about his early life and motivations was always going to be pleasurable for many like yourself, it didn't deliver on what he more or less promised. That's just how it is. Maybe he thought better of it and I don't blame him because he has quite the reputation to keep intact after all these years, but it just wasn't anything like what the majority were set up believe it was going to be, and that's down to him.
I don’t remember him teasing his book. If anything we all knew his book wasn’t going to be anything other than what it is.
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
I am glad there was no dodgy stuff in Arsène's book, tbh...far too classy a man for that, I just wanted a book to remind me of all the great memories I have, of the man who made me fall in love with football.

Belated happy birthday, boss...know you enjoyed Arsenal winning (and Emi being put in his place, like the gimp he is) like we all did!
 

Jury

A-M's drunk uncle
I don’t remember him teasing his book. If anything we all knew his book wasn’t going to be anything other than what it is.
Nah.... There was **** loads people thought they were going to read that didnt materialise. You dont ever remember him grinning and saying "maybe you'll read it in the book" to the dozens of questions he would be asked in the YEARS before the release? He was selling the book, I dont blame him. They all do it.
 

Jury

A-M's drunk uncle
Oh well.

Everyone can interpret the book in their own way. I said that it wasn't anything like the public expected it to be and that is probably exactly what Arsène wanted it to be.

A simple story about his life, his success and that's it.

I liked the book and learned few more details about his love for our club.
He is an absolute legend of this club.
There was nothing juicy in it like he teased there would be. People wanted that. As pleasant a read as it was, it just wasn't there.
 
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