Arsene Wenger came out this week and said that this season has been his most difficult season as manager of Arsenal since he joined the club in 1996. The Frenchman has come under a lot of criticism recently for his style of management and philosophies, which may all be fair criticisms, but surely this doesn’t undo the legacy that he has created as Arsenal’s most successful manager?
Before the media circus turns Wenger into a failed and useless manager, I want to remember some of Wenger’s greatest achievements as the Gunners’ manager.
Loyalty in the modern game is a thing of rarity, and despite various offers from Real Madrid over the years, Wenger has remained faithful to the Gunners and is currently in his fifteenth year in charge.
Wenger’s efficient management of the finances has resulted in healthy returns and profits, which is rare even for the biggest clubs. FIFA has labelled Arsenal as the footballing business ideal after recent figures.
Arsene Wenger has well and truly transformed Arsenal into a world class side; since his arrival, Arsenal have played nearly every year of club football’s greatest competition, the Champions League. The minimum an Arsenal fan expects now is to be in the top four at the end of May.
Is there a sweeter feeling for an Arsenal fan? Sylvain Wiltord propelled himself to Arsenal legend for one night, after scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win over the Red Devils at their home ground to seal the 2002 Premier League title.
A whole season unbeaten and 49 matches without defeat, one of the greatest footballing achievements ever.
Draws 17 – Wins 16 – Loses 4 -Against Spurs… Under Wenger’s tenure the bragging rights have well and truly been in the red half of London.
Wenger has transformed Arsenal from “Boring, Boring Arsenal” to a team that plays some of the best free flowing attacking football on the planet. Although this style in more recent years has become somewhat frustrating to the fans, it is credit to Wenger and his ability as a manager to change Arsenal’s style.
Le Professeur has an impressive record of blooding Arsenal’s youth players into integral parts of Arsenal’s team. Wenger refuses to spend big and instead moulds and trains the younger players into stars, a risky policy indeed but the former Nagoya Grampus manager has found it very rewarding, with such players as Jack Wilshere and Cesc Fabregas emerging as world talents after Wenger showed faith in their abilities from a young age.
Wenger gave Arsenal fans the Double in 1997-98 and 2001-02, as well as a couple more FA cups and another league title thrown in for good measure; this is truly a remarkable feat. But over the years Arsenal have come so close to lifting much more silverware, UEFA Cup final defeat to Galatasaray, eliminated in the FA cup semi by ‘that’ Giggs goal and in 1998-99 they lost the title by one point to Manchester Untied.
There isn’t, and never has been, someone as good as Wenger for spotting talent; Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp, to name just a few, have all been plucked from footballing obscurity to become not only Arsenal record breakers, but legends of World football.
