Arsene Wenger 1,000 matches: We wondered who he was … now we’ll never forget

 
21 March 2014

Nobody is asking ‘Arsene Who?’ now.

An Evening Standard bill poster best summed up the general reaction in English football to Arsene Wenger’s appointment as Arsenal manager in September 1996 with a now infamous question regarding the identity of Bruce Rioch’s successor.

A feature article dated September 18, 1996 pondered the fundamentals. “How should the name be pronounced —both of them? If you are French, you will probably address him as Ar-senn Won-jair. German? Ar-sehn Ven-ger, perhaps. North Bank regular, plasterer Trevor Hale, struggled slightly: ‘Arse-in Won-gah, innit mate?’”

Even the club that had just spent £2.3million in acquiring his services agreed. “An Arsenal spokeswoman said: ‘That’s quite right. It’s a bit of a problem. In fact as soon as he arrives I think that’s the first question we’ll be asking — what, and how, would you like to be called?’”

From such inauspicious beginnings grew the career of a man who would irrevocably change the course of a club to a degree few in world football have ever matched.

Wenger has redefined Arsenal in every way. The Gunners are today what Wenger has made them.

Once renowned for a functional style epitomised by the self-deprecating chant of “one nil to the Arsenal”, their expansive and entertaining philosophy is now admired the world over.

Highbury will forever hold a dear place in the hearts of Arsenal supporters but Emirates Stadium is a venue among the best in the game, generating revenues that will ensure the club’s longevity among Europe’s elite.

He brought sophistication and modernisation to a playing staff initially sceptical of his methods. Diets changed. Drinking stopped. Ageing players extended their careers and suddenly trophies arrived. A Double in 1998, another in 2002. A remarkable unbeaten League campaign in 2004 — the ‘Invincibles’ have etched a permanent place in football folklore.

Wenger is indeed a visionary but he has suffered for his art. The decision to self-fund a new stadium severely restricted the club’s ability to compete for major honours during the second half of his reign. Results suffered. Fans, asked to foot the bill through spiralling ticket prices, also suffered. Young players were given their head but so often left just as they became men. The trophyless years began to stack up.

Wenger’s unwillingness to yield to football’s kamikaze approach to managing finances earned him respect but created frustration. This master of economics had a Pavlovian fear of the chequebook, it was said.

Hostility had reached the point at which some fans chanted “you don’t know what you’re doing” to one of the most revered managers in world football.

Wenger has stayed faithful — despite repeated overtures from major European clubs — and remained focused on fulfilling the vision outlined more than a decade ago.

Arsenal have renegotiated their key sponsorship deals, used a property development scheme to drive down debt created by the stadium move and in signing Mesut Ozil for £42.4million, they announced to rivals that those financial shackles had been broken.

Arsenal’s is Wenger’s life work. He can come across as dismissive and curt amid the adrenalin rush of immediate post-match interviews but having regularly had the opportunity to verbally spar with him in the more sedate setting of a press conference, Wenger could not be more affable.

Still a regular in inter-staff football matches at London Colney despite entering his 65th year, Wenger’s enthusiasm for the game is unabated by the passage of time. Thierry Henry claims Wenger is always the first to arrive and the last to leave the training ground, while almost every evening is spent watching a match somewhere, however remote.

He was shaken by the criticism some Arsenal fans threw at him at the beginning of the season but the three-year contract on the table represents the final stage of his grand plan: the chance to spend big money, complete his squad and win the Champions League he so craves. It would be a huge step to walk away now.

Arsene Wenger's best Arsenal XI

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“The responsibility of a manager is to make sure during his time that his club becomes bigger and stronger as a unit,” he said yesterday. “What we have achieved all together at the club is to transform it in a modern way, to a much bigger size and today this club is respected and loved all over the world.

“Everybody at the club contributed to that.”

None more so than Wenger. His name and legacy are unforgettable now.

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