Today we have a guest post from @TheFalseNein
It’s 1995 and George Graham has decided his time at Arsenal was up – Leaving Rioch to hold the fort for The Gunners who finished a mediocre 5th the following season. I say mediocre, but this was a huge improvement on their league position in the previous season, in which they finished 12th following Graham’s sacking after the scandal he was involved in. Graham’s sacking left the club in a state of disrepair and in need of a pioneer to get the club back to the heights it was at during the 10 years prior. ‘Arsène who?’ the papers questioned, when the Grampus Eight manager was hired in the close season. How could a club with such a glorious history choose such a person to drive them back in to Europe? Sure he had won a Ligue 1 title amongst 3 other trophies in his time at Monaco, but a man who cowers off to Japan when things get tough surely cannot handle the great English Premier League? You can imagine these were the thoughts amongst the media and so too the Gunners faithful followed suit. Arsenal captain Tony Adams famously said ‘He looks like a school teacher’ with the clear implication that he wasn’t all that in football terms.
Wenger introduced new training methods and player dieting, something unheard of and ridiculed in English football. I won’t go into the details because this is an article, not a biography. I’ll let you know in brief then, how the opening decade of Wenger’s reign went:
96/97 – 3rd after signing Patrick Vieira and Remi Garde
97/98 – 1st and won the FA Cup after signing Emmanuel Petit, Marc Overmars and Nicholas Anelka with Ian Wright departing after the Cup Final.
98/99 – 2nd losing the Premier League and the FA Cup to ‘The Class of 92’. Ljungberg and Kanu sign.
99/00 – 2nd losing the EUFA Cup Final to Galatasaray. Anelka leaves and is replaced by Thierry Henry. Graham’s old guard begin to depart, Lauren brought in to replace Winterburn.
00/01 – 2nd losing the FA Cup Final to Liverpool. Petit and Overmars leave, Pires, Wiltord and Edu are brought in.
July 2001 – Wenger is offered the chance to join Petit and Overmars at Barcelona, instead he signs a four year deal at Arsenal. Arsène finds his new CB pairing in Sol Campbell and Kolo Toure.
01/02 – 1st and win the FA Cup. Two doubles in 6 years for Arsène and Arsenal. Gilberto Silva signs.
02/03 – 2nd and win the FA Cup. Wenger hits out at Manchester United’s unbridled spending. Brings in Lehmann to replace Seaman. Senderos, Clichy, Djourou, Van Persie and Fabregas are signed.
03/04– 1st. Arsenal go the entire season unbeaten in the league with 90 points. Reyes is signed midseason to aid the title challenge .
04/05 – 2nd Arsenal miss out to Mourinho’s Chelsea, who spent £203m in the two windows prior. Arsène’s saving grace is once again winning the FA Cup.
2004 – 2006: The work on the Emirates Stadium finally begins. Wenger describes this as ‘the biggest decision in Arsenal history’. And so it was.
Now I’m not going to pretend the next 8 years are pretty. They aren’t. Arsenal have to start making annual PROFIT while Chelsea spend in excess of £70m each window on transfers alone. Arsène holds his tongue despite only being given a minute budget the previous season (the only signings being Flamini, Eboue and Almunia with no movement in January to aid the title push). The squad are low on morale after missing out on the club’s third double in a decade – and it’s only about to get worse. Robert Pires feels his best days are over and leaves the club, taking his creative contribution with him. The club then receive an offer for want-away captain, Patrick Vieira from Juventus. The Invincibles lost their captain that year and the rest of their spine follow a year later (Ashley Cole, Sol Campbell, Thierry Henry) after the heartbreak of the Champions League Final loss to Barcelona. Half of the squad Arsène built over the last decade have abandoned him, the board say they do not have the funds to properly replace them.
You know how the rest of the story goes. Arsenal endure a lengthy trophy drought between 2005/2014, despite making 5 semi-final appearances and one final appearance, each as agonisingly painful as the other. Many argue ‘Arsène lost us that many big matches.’ but I’d like you to think for a moment who managed to get us in that position in the first place? Of course he could have handled certain occasions better – perhaps set up more defensively etc. as all the twitter experts and Adrian Durham will tell you, but does that take anything away from the credibility of the man? Does that mean he is not a top class manager because he refuses to play negative football and ‘park the bus’? Of course we can pick at individual mistakes Wenger has made over his tenure, he has managed over 1,000 Arsenal games and is bound to get some of them wrong, him being a human being and all.
But this article isn’t about ‘what makes a top class manager’, It’s about the contribution Arsène Wenger has made to Arsenal Football Club. I will remind you again of the events of 2001 where Arsène was asked to join Barcelona or perhaps 2004 when he could’ve taken the coaching role a Real Madrid. How easy would it have been for the Premier League Manager of the Year 2004 to ‘leave on a high’ and build on the 16 trophies he’s already won with one of the Spanish giants? I know world class manager, Jose Mourinho would’ve. I can say that because that’s exactly what he did when he left Chelsea mid season in 2007 because things weren’t going as planned. The difference between the two fantastic managers is that Mourinho would rather retire with a very pretty trophy room, filled with his own personal honours and be known as ‘the special one’ by those who supported his various teams – whilst Wenger wants to make an imprint on one football club, a long lasting legacy that will ensure the success of the club long after he’s gone. When asked about where his titles are Wenger said ‘I don’t know. I don’t like to look back’. He may not care for individual honours, but what he certainly does care about is Arsenal. Arsène sacrificed his own success so that he could make sure Arsenal could stay successful.
It’s been about two years since Arsenal paid the portion the debt of the Emirates Stadium that they planned too. and club CEO Ivan Gazidis claimed ‘Arsenal are now on course to compete with the greatest clubs in the world, we’re in the process of becoming a modern super club’. He’s not wrong. If you look at the transfers explored earlier in this article, you’ll see that Wenger bought 2 or 3 key players in each season prior to the Invincibles run – gradually building a title winning force that can maintain a challenge in ALL competitions. Arsène unearthed great gems during the trophy drought, players he surely thought would shape the spine of his future title winning team – Cesc Fabregas, Alex Song, Samir Nasri, Robin Van Persie, Gael Clichy, Kolo Toure,Cole. All left to chase glory with sides that had uncapped spending potential. Each time Wenger would establish his first team, get to a stage where he was two players off a side that could win titles, two more would leave – an impossible task when you make world class players but cannot afford to keep them happy. Now we find ourselves in a similar position. As I type this, Arsenal fans are still relishing in their triumph over Manchester United, the club look on course to retaining the trophy they ended the drought with. We also sit in one point off of 2nd place, many suggest we are one or two players away from winning the title – where have I heard that before? Though due to the debt of the Emirates Stadium being paid off, we are in a position where two players can come in without us having sacrifice one of our star men to afford it.
For me, the sad part is that Wenger feels his own career is coming to a close. When his contract is up in 2017, he’d have finally completed the squad we’ve been building for years. Ozil, Alexis, Wilshere, Ramsey, Walcott, Koscielny, Gabriel and Giroud will all be in the peak years of their respective careers. There you have a spine of a team that can win titles in the present but what astounds me is Wenger’s concern for the future success of the club too. Spending grand sums of money on youth products like Chambers, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Hector Bellerin that’ll surely continue to dazzle and contribute to Arsenal’s success long after Arsène himself is gone. The manager that takes Wenger’s place will have very little to do as the foundations for success will be there ready made for him. The media illusion will tell you that Wenger’s retirement is what Arsenal needed to win titles again, but in reality it was the sacrifices he made that created a platform for us to succeed in the first place. He may not have the titles Ferguson had, but he will leave the club of his heart with the means to continue to be strong without him. My aim of this article wasn’t to put Wenger’s name up in starry lights and glorify everything the man has done. Just to make you think a little before you criticise a man who has always put our club, his club, before himself.
Positively Arsenal 
this is an incredible article but is so bad we leave in a world of urself..a world were human beings only think of the present..the past and sacrifices are irrelevant to our present age. Maybe we as human beings have lost what and sole reason of what humanity means.
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Much obliged False Nein for a sound opening for a good week.
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Thanks FN for telling it as it is (or was). In the sometimes tawdry world of professional sport he stands out as a truly great man. I just hope that he will be around long enough to see his newest project properly blossom.
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Wenga is more than just afootball manager. The man is brilliant.he is an economist, aman of letters,a philosopher, an intrapreneur and above ahuman being! Such people are rear to find.they come once in a generation. Let Arsenal club celebrate him because he is a blessing to them
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If you have an eye for bling, it’s easy to be dazzled by Wenger’s stunning successes before 2005.
But his greatest feats have been since 2005 – achievements unmatched by any football manager in history.
I’m sure on this site I don’t need to spell out the details.
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There is simply no way one can overstate Wenger’s contribution to not only to Arsenal but to football as a sport. Can anyone dispute that with the triumph of big money in turning English football into a parody of sportsmanship, into my sheik has bigger balls than your oligarch, when millionaire footballers cheat with impunity flopping to the ground at the slightest touch, haranguing referees to send off a fellow-pro, when a megalomaniac has fine tuned the art of negative football making a virtue of winning at all cost, that amidst all of this Wenger has been a shining beacon. The petty, small minded no-nothing’s have tried to belittle his contribution to football and to Arsenal because of the barren years, minimizing the sheer genius of management and leadership in keeping us competitive and in the top-4. That alone would earn him a statue but for me the commitment to football as an art, the devastating combination play, the emphasis on skill, the artistry of the team is what sets him apart from all others. There are 2 more years on his contract and there is a lot more to come. That much we can be certain.
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Great article FN.
People say we need 1 or 2 more players to win the PL or the CL, but I think we have the team now. However as the great Arteta will be a little older and slower, the wonderful Rosisky may go to a German club to get full time football and all our hopes for Diaby’s recovery may be dashed, then there is perhaps some room in the locker room.
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I don’t know much but the more I think about it the more impressive the rebuild since the F-Word began his slow posiounous departure has been.
So impressive that I can’t understand those like our good friend Dexter who were upset at the lack of Coquelin being promoted at the start of the season (he had to regain his form after injuries etc. first?) or a third choice CB touching Koscielny levels who wasn’t green or too old (easy to find, then!….), i mean after such an impressive restructering of the squad in so short a timespan surely one or two mild errors (assuming they were errors!) are allowed, unless you choose to blame the manager responsible for that rebuild and shiny new trophy so much that you want them gone, which given that hard to ignore re-build (Sanchez, Ozil, The FA Cup…) would strike me as just a little bit immature, mean, and unsightful.
But of course, people are entitled to their opinions. Mine is that what we have seen over the last four seasons, since the 2010 WC and the shirt pulling demeaning of the Arsenal on the world stage by it’s former Captain, has been quite a remarkable turnaround. Perhaps as many others have suggested AW’s greatest acheivment, the turnaround to find ourselves competing with the petro-Clubs. An acheivment that takes serious effort to ignore. Especially when you write about your Arse on a daily basis.
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< poisonous
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Excellent piece, thank you. Just one thing
“My aim of this article wasn’t to put Wenger’s name up in starry lights and glorify everything the man has done. Just to make you think a little before you criticise a man who has always put our club, his club, before himself.”
No need for you to be concerned on this front. No body here is about to criticise our greatest ever manager, there are plenty other places populated by little people who revel in throwing mud at a man who’s shoes they are not fit to lick. But not us.
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Splendid stuff, FN.
Great moniker too.
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Nice one, FM.
I see a various pieces implying Arsenal have paid off the stadium mortgage but in my mind payments finish in 2020-something? Enlightenment please.
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“Though due to the debt of the Emirates Stadium being paid off, we are in a position where two players can come in without us having sacrifice one of our star men to afford it.”
we have not paid off the stadium debt, you must have been listening to the ill informed media such as redknapp and neville.
Yes now it don’t affect us the way it did for the period 2005-2012, but we still have to pay around £20M a season for about the next ten years.
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are the English media finally realizing what a nasty piece of work Mourinho is
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/ian-herbert-jose-mourinhos-attack-was-because-graeme-souness-has-spotted-his-flaws-10109683.html
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Great news! Tomas Rosicky is back in training.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150316/arsenal-train-ahead-of-monaco-match
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So farewell then
Gus Poyet
Scorer of a scissor kick against Sunderland
But now scissored yourself.
You never quite hit the managerial heights
Though some in Brighton
Will fondly say
Farewell then. But maybe not the man who
Cleans the dressing rooms.
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Eduardo “It’s been about two years since Arsenal paid the portion the debt of the Emirates Stadium that they planned too. ”
There is still about £200 mill long term loans being paid. All the short term loans have been paid off. So, despite our cash balance, we are still in overall debt.
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I mightn’t have been clear; I really liked this article.
I have interesting feelings as I read the dates players came and went.
I remain astonished at the choice of players brought into the club, particularly after 2010. These players appear to ‘get’ the Arsenal thing, because they could go to Chelski & City and get Mo Muney, innit. It’d been well established by this time that if you go to Arsenal you’ll get kicked and derided, without so much as a by your leave. So coming to Arsenal merely as a shoe in to some other club isn’t as attractive a proposition as’d been previously thought (mainly by agents and the previously crocked. Though that latter group tend to come on Freebies, like Bischoff, Sanogo, and others I can’t remember.)
I mean, SC19. Boo hoo all you other clubs. You didn’t see that one did you? You were all too busy trying to Fk up Asrenal on the pitch and in the press. Titanic, you screamed, whilst saying we’re gonna get Hazzrad, Mata, blah blah blah, spending my energy bill money on yr fking yachts or whatever, whilst inflating/doping the market.
Look at Giroud. Only 10M or so. He’s been sent off falsely twice. Once at Fulham, and this season for a headbutt. Are you kidding me – considering what’s meted out on us!
How about a seasons ban for Distin. He he smashed out Oliviers tibia? Dem tings don’t break easily, specially on a strong man like that, but the ref saw it, and he was pleased.
****!
I don’t need to say anything about Özil and Alexis. Thanks for coming. Özil, you’ve already been kicked in. Alexis, they’re still trying to crock you, but you know, with the beautiful V. Abu Diaby as an example, that you’ll be looked after, here at Arsenal.
Who have I missed?
Ta for clarification re the mortgage.
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Right boys and girls – its the big un tonight – Bradford or Reading ??
I have got a slight preference for Bradford, bit of history, underdogs, snazzy kit
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I dont know whether to watch our semi final opponents tonight or our likely final opponents.
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If you wish to take the Debt finance further Ranty feel free to peruse the work of Phil Gregory at Untold on the topic;
http://untold-arsenal.com/archives/10230
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The only attraction at the Liberty is JonJo Shelvey and the (remote) chance that he will slaughter his former employers – Swansea have looked underpower these past few weeks, or at least lacking enough to turn over the Scouse – no it is the Madjeski for me.
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Nice one FN. Cheers
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anicol5
Thanks so much for that link.
I remember reading a whole series of articles from Phil. If memory serves, he was at uni at the time, and once he had exams and then finished, I think he got a fab job and moved abroad.
But it is from Phil’s articles that I had this idea floating in my head, which was that Arsenal had mortgage repayments of £15-20m p.a. for many years to come.
I wonder what a similar article about the rebuilding and financing of Wembley would look like? (and that was built on the same site!)
The Ems is a triumph. I can just imagine O Neil, Biggus Sammus, etc, coming with their
“Financial degrees”. Slur Furgis of Triffid, regularly splashing out on any Veron/Owen/ whomever, cos it’s a Statement signing. Then, imagine having owners who tief out all da profits to pay off previous debts. Ooh, how we’d larrrff.
I’m going to repost that article on UA. Hope you dont mind.my hanks again.
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Great article and I totally agree with the sentiment but there are a few inaccuracies. GG was sacked then came Stewart Houston and lauren was brought in to replace Dixon at right back not Nigel. However the point of the piece is excellent and it just makes you wonder how many trophies Arsene would have won if he had prostituted himself around Europe like some of the other certain managers we know.
This is why the achievements of Arsene, Shankly, Clough, Stein, will always outweigh the likes of Maureen
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I don’t think I’ll be watching JJ who we got rid of for crying all the time so its the other game for me although I don’t know who I want to win. Bradford might give more tickets back than Reading for the semi although I’ve got cousins in Reading who could get me tickets, then again what about Bradford just for revenge….im confused
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You’ve got think the Scousers will turn over the Swans. The Welshmen are not the same team as the one who played us in the 1st half of the season; Bony is a great loss as a goal scorer and they seem to have a soft center, no matter the occasional heroics of JJ. This is one of the tightest run-ins for the top-4 in years and I love it. I hope our boys embrace the challenge.
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yes PG despite the cash balance AFC are still in debt, the only difference now is that it has much less impact on team building than it did for a six or seven year period where it really did hinder us in a major way.
The effect chelsea becoming a russians play thing had on us should not be over looked, we could have easily coped but for wages and transfers spiralling due to roman throwing his dodgy money in, and of course the slump in the housing market had an impact too, it slowed up our income.
One thing often overlooked in the building of the Emirates Stadium was the unneeded delays Islington Council and others put in our way, this alone seen the cost of the stadium go way up, again money that could have meant all the difference to our squad building.
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Arsenal U21’s are playing Blackburn U21’s away at the moment.
Arsenal Under-21s to play Blackburn Rovers: Macey, Smith, Ajayi, O’Connor, Bola, Kamara, Maitland-Niles, Zelalem, Jebb, Iwobi, Mavididi
Under-21s subs: Iliev, Sheaf, Robinson, Lipman, Dobson
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from Jeorge Bird
With several players on U21 duty (Steve Gatting’s side face Blackburn Rovers away tonight), Donovan was selected to train with the first-team squad at London Colney this morning prior to tomorrow’s Champions League tie against Monaco.
Gabriel and Tomas Rosicky returned to training and could make the squad for the trip to France, whilst Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Debuchy and Serge Gnabry also trained as they continued to build up their fitness.
Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Isaac Hayden and Abou Diaby are all still out.
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As far as I can see Eddy Islington Council played a blinder – for some of the voters in the borough anyway
Unlike Tottingham we did not expect the Islington residents and other tax paying locals to subsidise a billion $ business that pays its employees six figure weekly salaries.
We did not have to burn out the premises of local businesses who stood out against the Grove development
And as we have made a bloody fortune out of the move and a pretty run down bit of North London does not look too bad nowadays I feel pretty good about how it went.
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I’m rooting for Reading this evening. My local club these days, and I know a fair few fans. But its a fairly filthy night here and they share the pitch with London Irish, so I suspect the scales have tilted towards Bradford.
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Nine minutes gone and Bradford 2-0 down
Looks like JJS might be lucky after all !
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Some of those youngsters playing tonight are out of contract at the end of the season and are literally playing for their futures if not with us but to keep playing professionally, I wish them the best of luck.
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Swansea ending the half well and might feel that they should have taken the lead.
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Full-time: Blackburn Rovers Under-21s 0-0 Arsenal Under-21s
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FK² @fkhanage · 3h 3 hours ago
Sad news about Vermaelen; yet to play for Barcelona due to injury, he’s reportedly undergoing psychological therapy to deal with the stress.
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Wenger: “Rosický comes back from sickness, he isn’t completely fit. Gabriel replaces Akpom in the squad.”
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Ben Dinnery @BenDinnery · 6h 6 hours ago
Debuchy & Arteta have stepped up their rehab after recovering from respective shoulder / ankle injuries & aim to play in early April
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George spoils us. Between posts like these and the beauties the house band puts out, there’s just no better Arsenal related blog on the Internek. Bravo!
What are the pricks going to say in ten years when we’re flush with cash and everyone else starts falling apart, will they look back and damn Arsene for all the fourth place trophies which kept the lights on while we built the stadium?
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Henderson steals Jonjo’s luck and takes home the three points with a deflected strike.
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Great piece for FN, I hope that is the first of many.
Having watched the extended highlights I thought Welbeck is looking even better. I think we can expect more from that boy too
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That is very sad news about Vermaelen Eduardo. I hope he manages to overcome his injury woes.
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Luke Harding @lukeharding1968 ·
In the months before he was murdered Alexander Litvinenko was investigating Roman Abramovich – inquiry hears, passing info back to MI6
Litvinenko alleged Abramovich and Putin were jointly involved in “laundering a huge amount of money” and “buying land illegally”
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debuchy is back in training, no contact training yet, but he is kicking a ball, and lots of fitness work. both he and arteta are expected to return to the first team in April.
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A little bit about the boss back in Monaco.
Also touches on Marseilles corruption during his time in France.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/soccer/julian-bennetts-arsene-wengers-legacy-secure-at-arsenal-and-monaco-318922.html?
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Let the Mickey mousers use up all their luck before Wembley.
I still think either Rovers or Villa will catch then cold.
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