Arsene Wenger – Longest Serving Arsenal Manager Ever

Arsene Wenger became Arsenal manager when he was a relatively unknown foreign manager in the 1996 season, succeeding the outgoing Bruce Rioch. Wenger was actually interviewed for the job before Rioch became manager but it was decided that Rioch was the better man for the job at that time. Wenger must have made a good impression as whilst he was manager of Grampus Eights in Japan he was approached by Arsenal and decided the time was right to take a chance in England. It paid off excellently for him and this week he becomes the longest serving manager in the history of the club, in an era where impatience with club managers is very common.

Wenger immediately applied his carefully considered methods to the Arsenal team. He did not immediately seek to dismantle the ageing goalkeeper and back four of Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Adams and Bould but opted for a slow transition and despite some media criticism did not fully replace all of these players for nearly five years, where a lot of managers would have replaced them within one or two seasons. Players commented on the long warm ups Wenger implemented which included up to forty five minutes of stretching before every training session. Wenger was, and is, a man of conviction and whilst considered to use strange methods in the mid 1990’s most clubs have now adopted this careful and methodical approach to training.

Arsenal managed to win the Premiership in the 1997 to 1998 season, again in 2001-2002 (in both of these seasons they also won the FA Cup) and perhaps their most famous season in 2003-2004 where they went the entire season without losing a league match. Arsenals team in this period were known as “The Invincibles” and were lead by Thierry Henry, who Wenger had signed as a left wing player in 1999 from Monaco but converted into one of the most devastating forwards of his generation. Wenger managed to lead Arsenal into the Champions League final in 2006 but they were defeated by a strong Barcelona team. Since then success has been hard to come by but they are currently bringing through a number of exciting youth players who could, together with Fabregas and Van Persie, see Arsenal dominate the league table once again.

Wenger is fiercely defensive of his players and rarely admits to seeing a controversial incident when interviewed after a match. It is something of an in-joke with reporters that he has never seen any incident; you can often see him make a half smile as he says “I did not see it”. He expects his loyalty to be rewarded however, and is not afraid to criticise his players after he has reviewed video footage of an incident, but he is careful on commenting before he is sure on his opinion.

Fans of Arsenal have often criticised Wenger on his lack of spending in the transfer market. Arsenal has sold Overmars, Hleb and Henry to Barcelona and Toure and Adebayor to Man City in recent years making massive profits on the sales of the players. Arsenal moved from Highbury to the Emirates stadium and the club continues to make excellent profits. Wenger believes in nurturing youth players and runs the club very efficiently and as a business. Mike Ashley of Newcastle tried to copy Arsenals club operation model with devastating results when it went wrong. Much of Arsenals recent profit has come from their development and selling of the apartments on the site of the old Highbury stadium and Wenger was consulted on all aspects of this business plan and strategy.

The youth side of Arsenal today includes exciting prospects like Keiron Gibbs, Jack Wilshere, Carlos Vela and Aaron Ramsey. Wenger plays this side in the Carling Cup where they are currently in the quarter finals of the tournament. The manager must take credit for this youth system as he has managed for such a long time the production line of young talent has been implemented under his leadership. Arsenals odds for winning the FA Cup, where they always seem to have a good run is currently 8.50, and after a slightly slow start in the Premiership their odds for winning are currently 8.00. If you fancy Wenger to lead Arsenal to the Champions League, their odds are currently 12.00.

Football betting odds from bwin.com

By Malcolm Clarke