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"I jump into a sand pit for a living"

Jonathan Edwards, World record triple-jumper

Arsene Wenger

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John Cross, London Simon &Schuster, 2015. ISBN: 978-14711-3791-4

John Cross’s unofficial biography of Arsene Wenger documents Wenger’s reign as Arsenal manager from 1996 to the present. While it is not written with Wenger’s participation or approval, the author encountered Wenger a great deal professionally and has spoken to many who worked closely with him.

Wenger the man who emerges from the book could be summed up as:

An innovator in diet and training methods and in changing the drinking culture;

A man of his word;

Popular with players and ex-players;

Loyal to staff;

Having a fierce temper;

“The worst loser I’ve ever seen – worse than Fergie”. Martin Tyler;

Accident prone;

Money-motivated

With a great ability to spot raw talent.

Wenger’s philosophy of management is analysed. It is well summed up in this quotation from the man himself: “We are in a job where you have to win. But the truth is that the ambition of every great club must be to win and to win with style, and to think of the people who pay a lot of money to come to watch the matches. You always have to have it in your mind that you want people to wakeup in the morning with a love of going to the stadium and for them to go home having enjoyed themselves. In fact, the real goal of professional football entails not just winning but also people to discover the pleasure of watching something beautiful”.

Cross suggests that Kolo Toure exemplifies Wenger’s philosophy. Wenger signed him on a free transfer and converted him from midfield to defender. Creating a player and building a team is his preferred way not buying. Even when he has got more money to spend, he wants to stick to his vision, which is to produce players rather than buy superstars.

Consistency is another principle. He often talks about the achievement of having qualified for the Champions League for 17 years consecutively.

His principles are set out in the following statement: “My job is to deliver a team with the resources we have, and I have never complained about that. I want a club to pay players from its own resources, there is no shame in that… For me, there are five trophies – the first is to win the Premier League, the second is to win the Champions League, the third is to qualify for the Champions League, the fourth is to win the FA Cup and the fifth is to win the League Cup. I say that because if you want to attract the best players, they do not ask: ‘Did you win the League Cup?’ They ask you: ‘Do you play in the Champions League?’”.

One of the strongest parts of the book is the comparison of Wenger with Mourinho and also Alex Ferguson. The 0-6 defeat to Chelsea is used to illustrate the point. Cross says: “Wenger puts the onus on the players to win games. Mourinho puts the onus on the tactics to win games… You can no longer simply send out a team and hope they play at their best and win”.

The difference for Cross is that “Mourinho, will set up a team to win at all costs and then add in the flair later. Managers like Wenger begin their philosophy with entertainment and then figure out how to win later”. It is also said that Wenger devotes much less time to tactical preparation that other comparable managers.

Cross suggests that the strength of Ferguson’s management was his skilful delegation. It is interesting that Ferguson says in his book that he found delegation very difficult in his early days.

The enigma of Arsene Wenger is that he is revered despite winning nothing for years and while qualifying for the Champions League is a great achievement, Arsenal rarely makes an impression on it.

Part of his achievement, perhaps, is to compete with the other top four clubs with less resources and to keep Arsenal in the top four while working with lesser players. His ability to sign players cheaply, develop them, give them a chance and then possibly sell them a big profit.

An interesting evaluation of Wenger comes from Tim Payton, of the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust: “If he’d left in 2006 then he’d be regarded as Arsenal’s greatest ever manager. But…what happened later on has tarnished what he achieved in the early days”.

One thing which interested me was his joy at meeting the Pope: “I am a Catholic, so it was an experience, and [the invitation] I accepted a long time ago and, on top of that, it was a game for peace and multi-religion understanding. [The Pope] was a great person to meet because he shows humility and is available to meet for everybody”.

The book is a good read and gives real insights into the character, principles and achievement of Arsene Wenger.



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