I do wish he had retired on the pitch at Wembley in 2017 , FA Cup in hand , rather than negotiating a deal for two more years the following day directly with Stan Kroenke . Change country: -Select- Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Aruba Australia Austria Bahamas Barbados Belgium Belize Bermuda Bolivia Brazil British Virgin Islands Bulgaria Canada Cayman Islands Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Estonia Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) Finland France French Guiana Germany Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guatemala Guyana Haiti Honduras Hungary Ireland Italy Jamaica Japan Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Martinique Mexico Montserrat Netherlands Netherlands Antilles Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Republic of Croatia Romania Saint Kitts-Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Slovakia Slovenia Spain Suriname Sweden Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Islands United Kingdom United States Uruguay Venezuela Virgin Islands (U. Wenger took the decision to keep him for the last year of his contract hoping he’d relent and sign during the season but prepared to lose him for nothing if he didn’t . went the famous article welcoming him to London), bringing in a dietary revolution (for his first game in charge, on the way to the stadium, the players were chanting “We want our Mars bars!

Simultaneously, he was receiving an education in people and psychology through his parents’ bistro, La Croix d’Or, which, like so many Alsatian bistros, was the heart of the village. Arsene’s autobiography starts with an account of the young Arsene Wenger growing up in Duttlenheim, a small village near Strasbourg.This book is a must-read for not only Arsenal supporters but football fans everywhere, as well as business leaders and anyone seeking the tools for success in work and life. This radical foreigner, with his suits and economics degree, was here to make his team ready for the new millennium: fitter, more skilful and less drunk. When you’re used to listening to someone talk on a weekly basis, you’re familiar with facial cues and vocal inflections, their sense of personality. A couple working as chauffeurs have been accused of stealing millions from the founder of Tin House Books. While he was hugely disappointed to see young players leave – Wenger says it was as if “we were being cut down before the harvest” – he understood their desire to win trophies and how Arsenal’s lack of players with more ”maturity, experience and clear-headedness” was making it appear unlikely that they would be able to do so without moving on.

It also didn’t help that the last 60+ pages of the book are a series of charts and tables with a ridiculous amount of statistical detail of Wenger’s career. Managers more comfortable with creating their own legend, in particular Jose Mourinho, are notable by their absence. Having been spotted by Max Hild, the opposing coach, Wenger joined Mutzig and then followed Hild first to Vauban and then to Strasbourg.There’s a lot of interesting stuff about man-management and team building, but to be honest, nothing particularly new or startling. For the pass to be a good one, the player has to put himself in the position of the person who’s going to receive it. With goalkeeper Jens Lehmann sent off for a foul on Samuel Eto'o in the early stages, Wenger was faced with a This book charts his extraordinary career, including his rise from obscurity in France and Japan to his 22 years at the helm of Arsenal Football Club. After a description of Arsenal’s history and culture – well known to drinkers at this establishment – there’s a paragraph each on many of the players Wenger found at the club – Adams, Seaman, Berkamp, Wright and Keown – and descriptions of his first few acquisitions – Vieira, Petit and Garde.

He tells us of their extraordinary commitment and how their trust in a manager’s infallibility would lead them to follow his instructions without question and to rely upon him to make all their decisions (even those in the middle of matches) for them. Who replaced Merson with Overmars and then Overmars with Pires , who replaced Petit with Gilberto and Vieira with Fabregas and made a profit on every deal after taking their best years for us. They had won three league titles, three FA Cup’s, and had put together The Invincibles season and the 49-game unbeaten run. Although he talks in the abstract about what makes a good player and coach, specifics are thin on the ground.

It is these connections, the “crossing paths” and mutual support that are evident throughout his early years in football, whether at AS Mutzig, Mulhouse, or Racing Strasbourg, the club where he juggled playing and coaching roles and that would serve as his first “laboratory” (bringing a psychiatrist into the club for the first time, among other things like “invisible training”—dietary regimes, massage, mental preparation, sleep, quality of life, the people the players surround themselves with), and later at Monaco, Nagoya and Arsenal. There are too few insights to keep readers on board — unless, perhaps, they are Arsenal supporters, of the pro-Wenger persuasion. But I’m not alone in wanting to know more about the fiercely private person behind the philosophy, behind the unabashed public display of affection and passion with the game—and it was with this expectation that I eagerly awaited his autobiography.

Hence why a wideboy like DD was the perfect foil until he landed himself in the soup through his innate tendency to gamble. You will find out a few things about coaching in Japan (Wenger was manager of Nagoya, with whom he won the Emperor’s Cup in 1995 and the Japanese Supercup in 1996), about the need to adapt to local customs, about the huge discipline of Japanese players or, again, about the importance of behaviour in adjudicating a sumo match. As a card-carrying fan of Arsene Wenger, I was surprised to discover after reading the book, that I had found it somewhat disappointing. I liked the early chapters, even the one about his experience in Japan even though somewhat simplistic the cultural descriptions were. He speaks with great admiration for those players who made the transition, and who ‘respected the players, the game, the beauty of the game [and] who did not just count on their opponent’s weakness.It was a story that provided me with great currency among fellow fans, especially a few years later, when Touré was tearing up the midfields and defences of every other Premier League team. Among the conditions of these loans was an agreement that Arsenal would spend no more than half of their income on player salaries. You may, for instance, want to find out the ‘truth’ behind Wenger’s departure from the club, or the rationale behind a number of transfers. His wit, empathy and unwavering principles have been common knowledge for decades, but never has his all-consuming dedication and obsession been on clearer display. He suggested the lad was worth about a tenth of that but ‘Wenger did the deal and he can sell sand to the Arabs!