There’s Only One Arsene Wenger

By: Martin | October 1st, 2009

Thirteen years ago today, Arsene Wenger officially became Arsenal’s manager. This officially makes him Arsenal’s longest-tenured manager, so I thought it might be worth taking a second to look back at what he’s meant to the club.

It’s worth noting that at the time, most pundits thought this move was a bad one on Arsenal’s part. Wenger had started out at French side Nancy, where he was unsuccessful in three seasons at the helm, the last of which culminated in relegation and him being sacked.

He was shortly thereafter hired by Monaco, where he made his name, winning the league in 1988 and the domestic cup in 1991. After leaving Monaco in 1994, he headed east. Way east. To Japan, where he managed Nagoya Grampus Eight for 18 months. During this time, he befriended former Arsenal chairman David Dein. Before the 1995-1996 season, the club spoke with Wenger about the possibility of taking over the reins of the club, but the position was eventually offered to Bruce Rioch. When Rioch was sacked early the next season due to a dispute with the board over transfer funds, the job was given to the unproven Wenger.

You’re probably generally familiar with Arsenal’s accomplishments under Wenger, so I won’t recount them in any great detail here. Three Premiership titles. Four FA Cup titles. Runner up in both the UEFA Cup and Champions League. The only unbeaten team in Premiership history.

He is Arsenal’s most successful, and now longest-tenured, manager. Just as impressive as his victories, for me, though, is how he has won. Arsenal under Wenger has always played beautiful, free-flowing, skilled, attacking football. He is probably more responsible than anyone else (although Ferguson is admittedly a close second) for bringing English football into the modern era through an influx of international talent and a modern understanding of fitness and nutrition.

He made the club fun to watch, and I would suspect it’s largely the reason many of us became Arsenal fans. I remember when I first started following the game in the late 1990s. I had really gotten into the 1998 World Cup, and after it was over, I wasn’t willing to wait 4 years to watch more football. But I didn’t know much about the game (that’s putting it mildly–replace “much” with “anything” and that sentence would have been more accurate). All I knew is I liked it, and as the World Cup went on, I had kind of adopted the French team as “my” team. I really liked a lot of the players from the team–Zidane, Trezeguet, Thuram, Petit, Blanc, Vieira, and this young Thierry Henry fellow. Unfortunately, following European club football in America in those days was nearly impossible–it was the early days of the internet, and you could usually find out who had won the game and who had scored. If you were really lucky, you could find a game recap in English. I have to admit, I wasn’t instantly an Arsenal fan. I did like that both Petit and Vieira played for this English club with the strange name, so I started following Arsenal results a little bit. But I really liked Zidane, who played for Juventus, and was very happy the following season when Henry joined him there, and actually thought that Juve was going to be my team.

It was a few years later when it all fell into place. There was a local bar which I found that opened early on weekends and would show some English games off of some satellite feed, mainly to British ex-pats. By this time, Thierry Henry had moved onto Arsenal. I decided to start going in and watching some Arsenal games. It was pretty much love at first sight. That Arsenal team played with aggression, skill, and flair. Henry. Bergkamp. Kau. Wiltord. Vieira. Adams. Keown. Seaman. Cole. Ljungberg. Parlour. Pires. The battles with those great Manchester United teams. And running the show was Wenger, the shrewd, cosmopolitan, inscrutable Frenchman.

I can’t say Wenger was the reason I became an Arsenal fan, then. But I can say I think he’s the reason I stayed an Arsenal fan. It wasn’t until following the club for several seasons that I realized quite how responsible he was for all the things I loved (and still love) about the club. The attractive, attacking football. The truly international make-up of the squad–remember, this was at a time when most English clubs were still comprised of predominantly British players. The willingness to give young players a chance to compete at the highest level of club football.

One by one, those players moved on from the club. But Wenger brought in new players to take their place. Sol Campbell. Kolo Toure. Jens Lehmann. Gilberto Silva. Mathieu Flamini. Robin van Persie. Aleksander Hleb. Gael Clichy. Cesc Fabregas. There has been complete turnover in players from the Arsenal club I first started to follow and the club I follow now. And you know what? I love the club more than ever. And you know why? Because the values of the club then were the values of the club now. Attacking football. International flair. Young players proving themselves. Genius transfer moves (Football365 recently did a retrospective, in honor of Wenger’s 13 years at the club, of Wenger’s “13 best and 13 worst transfers”–seriously, take a look at the list and name one manager in the world with such an amazing record in the transfer market) And that all comes down to Wenger.

He’s been much less successful in previous years. It’s been four years since our last trophy, and it’s been several years since we’ve finished as high as second in the table. Whereas we used to duel with Manchester United for which club would be England’s top side, we’ve seemingly been overtaken by Chelsea and Liverpool in terms of silverware the last couple of seasons. Now Tottenham and Manchester City are gunning for our place in the top 4.

Because of this, Wenger has come under a lot of criticism from Arsenal supporters. Some of them have even called for Arsene to be sacked. Frankly, it’s ridiculous. He has his faults, and certainly shouldn’t be immune from criticism, but I honestly don’t see how you can call yourself an Arsenal supporter and call for his head. When you look back at how much he’s done for the club, and the great teams and great times for which he is responsible, it seems downright ungrateful for any Arsenal fan to want him to be given the boot.

As far as I’m concerned, I’m Arsenal for life largely because of him, so he should be Arsenal for life as well. He gives everything he has for the club, and has turned down overtures from “bigger” clubs to stay here and win trophies here. He loves the club, loves the players, loves the fans, and his values have become the club’s values. People who have supported the club much longer than I have may have a tough time understanding this, but it’s almost literally impossible for me to imagine Arsenal football without Wenger. Hopefully that’s not a dilemma I’ll have to face anytime in the near future.

There’s only one Arsene Wenger. And I’m so glad he’s ours.