Arsene Wenger: The Inside Story of Arsenal Under Wenger

The book arrived today

First interesting snippet about how Wenger treats players:

Winterburn appreciated how he was treated but also believes that Wenger's loyalty to the players and keeping his promises can sometimes end up undermining the overall strength of the sqaud:

"When I left in 2000, I had been offered a new deal. I spoke with David Dein in his office with Arsene. When Arsene left me out of the team in the December of the previous season, he said to me after a couple of weeks: 'I know you're unhappy, you've played your career playing every week, but I want you to be a part of the squad.' But I got to the end of that season and decided my performance was dropping a little and it was a case of leave or retire, really.

"I thought I might get another year, but I felt if I was playing only once every four or five weeks then that wouldn't be good for me. I wanted to push myself to my limit so I told him I wanted to leave and I had a discussion with David Dein. David actually offered me a new contract which was for more money than I was on. But I told David it wasn't about money, I just wanted to play football, and when I left the meeting Arsene put his arm around me and said: 'Don't worry, I'll make sure it happens for you.'

"I know he's done that with not just me, but with Ray Parlour who he helped in his move to Middlesbrough, and it was almost the same with the Thomas Vermaelen move and he's been criticised for that. If you don't let players go then you can kill their careers, and some players need to play regularly whereas others can come in and out of the team, and Vermaelen is a player who needed to play regularly. With injuries and not playing regularly, he wasn't performing anywhere near to the level of performance when he first came.

"Wenger did leave himself short but he's a man of his word and if he tells you that you can go, usually he lets you go... He gets pelters for that at times, when people say he's left himself short. But I also think he feels he owes players because they've played for the club, given their all for him and been loyal to him as well."

This followed a section about how Wenger always tries to keep his players happy by ensuring they're paid well and rewarded, with the idea being that the more loyalty he shows to his players the more loyal they'll be in return, and that they'll show that on the pitch.

Some would die for that loyalty, some takes it for granted. I suppose we got more of the later recently.

What a man.


Shame scum like Nasri, Cessssssc and RVP never paid him that in return.

Things like these make me feel AW has done a lot for Arsenal & its players not just on the field but off it too.

AW's weakness of trusting players may/may not get vindicated on the field as it was being discussed in the other thread,but it sure seems to be getting vindicated off the field.

No wonder even snakes like Cesc,RvP and Nasri consider him as a father figure.

Wenger and what he wanted for the training ground:

Wenger, naturally, took a personal interest in the development, even choosing the cutlery in the canteen and the chairs. There are no locks on locker doors, as Wenger believes it will stop communication among players because the doors will stop them seeing each other and conversation. Shoe covers must be worn at all times, while the building was designed to ensure there is always natural light. Displaying his customary eye for detail, Wenger insisted on ordering custom-made benches for the training ground dressing rooms, so that they would be the right height for short and tall players.

Cross makes an interesting comparison between some older and newer captains:

... But the flight home after the 2006 final remains probably the most unforgettable because of Henry's speech over the public address system at 35,000 feet.

...

On the plane home, Henry's voice was cracking with emotion as he took up the microphone in midair. 'This is Thierry speaking,' said Henry to the passengers, who then clapped and cheered enthusiastically when he spoke so passionately and in determined tones about next season and made it clear that he was staying. 'We have to take it on the chin. We must pick ourselves up and make sure we come back stronger next year.'

...

It became a familiar theme of Arsenal's European trips that Henry made a captain's address to the other 200 or so passengers on board the team plane, made up of team-mates, staff, journalists and a few dozen fans who would pay to on expensive executive trips. The speeches on the way back from Real Madrid and Juventus were uplifting and victorious, but after the defeat in the final, Henry was brief, full of emotion, dejection - and also hope for the future.

The tradition of giving a speech was always embraced by Patrick Vieira and Henry, but it eventually trailed away when Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie took over the armband. Perhaps it was in some way a reflection of the bond between players and the fans slipping away. Henry always had that connection with the club, and it remains the case. The others less so. It was undoubtedly part of the reason why Henry decided to stay at Arsenal - as least for another year.

Wenger also likes women apparently:

At another charity even in one of London's grand ballrooms, an onlooker remembers seeing Wenger at a table surrounded by about 12 women, and he kept them all entertained as they laughed and joked. He is a gregarious individual; he likes meeting people and making contacts. He enjoys female company and even - in another of his famous soundbites - likened the beautiful game to beautiful women: 'A football team is like a beautiful woman. When you do not tell her, she forgets she is beautiful.'

Cross claims that Wenger had been approached by Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, PSG, Manchester City and even England at various points. He says that, according to his own information, Wenger actually met with one of Madrid's presidential candidates, Villar Mir, in 2006 and was offered a pre-contract. Since Villar Mir didn't win, we'll never know how serious that was.

Yea, better to have a separate thread

Thanks RG

I've got more really interesting stuff coming up about everyone's favourite subjects: money and transfers.

To summarise the book so far (I'm a good 200 pages in by this point), the first half repeats a lot of what I already knew about Wenger between 98 and 2004; that he was a revolutionary manager who changed many things for the better, that he had a unique idea of how football should be played, that he had a great sense of humour, etc. I even skipped the chapter about the invincibles since Amy Lawrence already wrote an excellent book on that subject (as did Arseblog, though I've not read that one yet).

The current part I'm on is going into detail about the barren spell between 2005 and 2013 and is a lot more interesting.

I'll try and keep this brief.

Spoiler:

But Vermaelen went to Barcelona where he doesn't play every week...

Most of us already knew the type of captain Vieira/Henry are compared to later captains like Fabregas/Van Persie. It would have been pretty clear with the plane ride speeches that Fabregas/VP weren't as strong or vocal characters as their predecessors. Whether Wenger wanted that is another debate...IMO, we have always been missing stronger captains since Henry left.

Wenger and the press:

[on Wenger scaling back his press duties] However, Wenger is normally cooperative and patient. Occasionally, though, his patience will wear thin. 'For *bleep*'s sake, Mark,' he snapped at Arsenal's director of communications Mark Gonnella in November 2014. 'This is too long.' He was complaining that the 17 minutes given to every TV and radio station and website was excessive. Then Wenger had to do a separate 'newspaper section' to give us a different angle. We got seven minutes.

...

I remember when Arsenal were desperate for a new centre forward in December 2009 and plenty of names were being bandied around ahead of the January window. I cheekily wrote down a list of strikers and put the piece of paper on the table for Wenger to see when he sat down. One of the names was Eden Hazard. Wenger opened the door, stepped inside, sat down and immediately looked at the piece of paper.

'I was just trying to give you a shopping list, Arsene,' I smiled.

'Ah, interesting,' Wenger said, pointing at Hazard's name. Another name caught his eye and I said: "'Do you like him?'

'He's a good player,' said Wenger. 'I like him. But we already have too many players who have injuries and can't play two games a week.'

...

Wenger does admit to using the media; he has confessed to lying about injuries, and his vagueness about timescales and when players will return from injury is a constant source of frustration for Arsenal's medical team. These days, they will sometimes advise that an injury may take longer to overcome than is the case, because Wenger may say something different. (Cross cites Chamberlain's knee injury in 2013. The medical team said he'd be out for more than three months, but Wenger told the press he'd only be out for a month).

...

[on Law's office being at the training ground] Like everyone in the transfer business, Law is always discreet - especially around journalists. But when we look out of the media building window and see a smart Bentley, Ferrari or Porsche in the car park outside, we know straightaway that another agent has arrived.

...

[beIN sport journo Carrie Brown asked Wenger about trophies in 2013] 'The point I was trying to make was that it's your last chance to win a trophy...'

Wenger quickly interrupted: 'Thank you for that question - it's a long time since I've been asked that.'

...

Brown then went back for another attempt to get an answer: 'So, Arsene, your desire is to reach the final?'

'I want to lost it. I want to lose tomorrow so you can all be happy tomorrow,' Wenger retorted testily.

...

When van Wijk asked about his determination, Wenger said: 'I will go out with you and play one-on-one and if I don't beat you, I will want to beat you.'

Van Wijk: 'My knee is not what it was.'

'Don't make excuses even before we've started!'

...

[Former press director Clare Tomlinson, before she left to join Sky Sports] 'He then asked me: "Do you like football?" I said to him: "Arsene, you've with me for two years and you ask me if I like football!" Then he said: "But you're a Tottenham fan." He found that very funny. I've got nothing but respect for the man.'

Wenger and stats:

[on Arsenal's use of StatDNA, the company they brought]The interesting part about this is that the number-crunchers can look at stats and analyse players but, and this is the crux of the issue for the old-school scouts and coaches, does it really work on a practical level? For example, Tom Cleverley was identified as a potential target in the spring of 2014. His stats, according to the number-crunchers at the training ground and StatDNA, were outstanding. But can the system really analyse beyond the accuracy of passing? Therefore, will it really understand how many of those accurate passes actually drive the team forward? Judging by the fact Cleverley didn't join Arsenal, the old-school scouts might have proved the stats don't always work.

(Cross then talks about how Gabriel was actually signed based on his stats)

...

In the summer of 2014, Arsenal were left desperately short of defenders. But the stats told them that, in the previous few seasons, the fourth-choice centre back had played an average of four games a season. So they decided they didn't need to buy another defender to replace Thomas Vermaelen after he joined Barcelona. The stats did not legislate for the fact Arsenal suffered injuries to Debuchy, Koscielny and both left backs. So, on this occasion, the stats were proved horribly wrong.

(Arsenal also signed Viviano based on his stats as well, as apparently statistically he was the best of the "b-list" keepers)

...

Wenger regularly refers to players being in the 'red zone' ... but when it comes to actually resting players in the red zone, Wenger often ignores the recommendation and plays them anyway, especially if there isn't an obvious alternative.

More transfer stuff:

-- When Gazidis said in 2014 that we had a lot more money to spend, Wenger was apparently unhappy as it would drive up prices.

-- Arsenal thought they had Higuain wrapped up before the price was hiked up. Arsenal refused to meet the increased valuation, as Wenger saw it as a point of principal.

-- Wenger refused to meet Nasri's agent fees, and is generally not keen to pay out a lot on agent fees. Apparently this was another reason why the Higuain move didn't happen.

-- Arsenal managed to pull off the Ozil deal in three days and without Spurs finding out. According to Cross, Arsenal made their interest in Ozil known as early as June that year, as Gazidis had contacts with Madrid's director general Jose Angel Sanchez. Madrid needed to balance the books after signing Bale, so they made clubs aware that one of Ozil, Di Maria or Benzema would be sold. Spurs, though, were worried that a rival club would sign one of those players, so deliberately delayed the Bale transfer until the last moment so Madrid wouldn't have time to sell.

Arsenal renewed contact with Madrid as late as the 29th of August. Gazidis flew to Spain, while Wenger spoke to Ozil on the phone and Law flew out to Germany to speak with Ozil's family. Law then came back on the day of the Arsenal/Spurs game so as to not alert Spurs anything was happening - apparently Levy and Baldini were in the Arsenal director's box and didn't have a clue what was going on. Law went back to Germany after the game, Spurs announced Bale's sale, and the whole thing got wrapped up in 24 hours.


When Wenger was taking his time over signing a new deal in 2014, Arsenal actually made enquiries about other managers and planned for the possibility that Wenger wouldn't renew.

Chapter 16, "Tactics and Training", was very illuminating on how things work behind the scenes at Arsenal. Not a lot of it was encouraging.

-- Wenger likes to micomanage. He wants to be in charge of everything. Most agree he has a problem with delegation and doesn't surround himself with the best possible staff because he takes on so many responsibilities. It's noteworthy that the bulk of Arsenal's coaching set-up has remained intact since Wenger first arrived.

-- Wenger was so reluctant to shake up his coaching staff that he tried to convince Pat Rice not to retire in 2012. Boro Primorac has been with the club since 1996 and his role is, essentially, to lead warm ups and to watch games from the stands so he can give a different view of the game to Wenger. Tony Colbert, one of Arsenal's long-standing fitness coaches, is apparently very hit and miss - one of our current players, who Cross calls a "top European player" apparently doesn't even speak to him. Both Primorac and Colbert are believers in tough physical sessions and encourage Wenger to work the players hard.

-- Arsenal sometimes work their players too hard in training, while at other times they don't work them hard enough. Some players have complained about not being "match ready" after training. Cross observes that the players don't feel they're in the red zone after training, and that could be the cause of some of the injuries on matchday. He also mentions how Ramsey was rested for a mid-week game, but then worked so hard in training the following days the rest didn't actually do him any good, and he ended up injuring himself the next match. Likewise, Arteta ended up tearing his hamstring when he was worked hard in a training session during an international break.

-- Gerry Peyton, Arsenal's goalkeeping coach, is widely disliked by the players, who see him as a yes-man. Wenger seems to trust him, though. It was Peyton who told Wenger not to sign Hugo Lloris in 2012, as he thought Lloris would struggle with the crosses and the physicality of the Premier League. Fabianski didn't even want to work with Peyton, and credits his improvement to Tony Roberts, the other keeper coach. Roberts has since followed Fabianski to Swansea.

-- The general view is that Arsenal medical team is fantastic. However, they can only give recommendations to the manager, and Wenger often ignores them. When Arsenal signed Kallstrom in 2014, the medical team spotted right away that he had a fracture in his back, and advised Wenger to announce the deal with the caveat that the player was recovering from an injury. That didn't happen, the injury got it via the papers and the medical staff were unfairly criticised even though they actually did spot the injury before the player was signed.

-- When Wenger lightened training during an injury crisis in 2014, the squad picked up less injuries and this was apparently the eureka moment within the club about what they could do to improve things. Gazidis has apparently worked very hard to improve this area of the club. However, when Wenger promised a full investigation into the injuries, not much actually happened.

-- Wenger and Bould's relationship is better but in the past Wenger didn't even trust Bould to hold training sessions in his absence, instead giving that responsibility to Colbert. There's some thought that Wenger didn't like it when Bould was praised for his part in improving Arsenal's defending, as he publicly put Bould down and seemingly gave him less responsibilities during training.

-- Wenger listens to Grimandi's scout recommendations more than Rowley's, even though Rowley is wide regarded as one the best scouts in the world.

-- When Shad Forsythe joined, there were concerns about whether Wenger would actually listen to him or not. Arsenal's injury record has improved since Forsythe was brought in, however.

-- Wenger doesn't have much of a strategy when it comes to signing players. In 2014, he told scouts that a defensive midfield was his priority. Then when scouts came back with recommendations, Wenger changed his mind. Cross quotes one insider as saying that when Wenger leaves for a couple of weeks, there's no one doing business for him while he's away.

-- Youth development has really declined. This is another area that Gazidis is really pushing hard on, and it was he that appointed Andries Jonker. Brady and Burton, the former academy directors, didn't see eye-to-eye with Wenger as they thought youth scouting and coaching had fallen well behind (Arsenal struggled to get Cat 1 status for their academy). Jonker has also pointed out the same.

-- Despite his faults, Wenger is fiercely loyal to his staff, even the masseurs and the bus drivers, some of whom he's helped keep their jobs. The perception that he doesn't coach is completely false, apparently, and many players credit him with improving their technique.

-- One international player joked to a teammate, while on duty, that Arsenal do "about 20 minutes" of video analysis. Back in 2011, a player delegation, including Fabregas (captain at the time) and Szczesny went to Wenger to request more video preparation.

Thanks Jay, now i'm not sure if I should buy the book. You covered great deal already.

This is obviously one man observation, would be nice if someone from the past could clarify. I forsee some juicy questions from the press in the future.

As for all of those "negative" above, wouldnt be surprised if it has some truth in it. Kinda confirm stubborn/ bossy attitude of him.

Another transfer story - and the last of the book - about Falcao and Welbeck:

Cross believes that after Giroud broke his foot against Everton last season, Arsenal had two targets: Falcao and Welbeck. Arsenal were reluctant about Falcao because of his injury and the absurd figures involved in the deal, but, surprisingly, Dick Law went out and tried to get the deal done. Law actually believed going into deadline day that Falcao would sign, but then Man Utd got involved and the figures changed.

As a convenient consequence of that, Man Utd needed to balance the books so Welbeck became available. Welbeck happened to be at Arsenal's training ground with England, and had already been told he could leave. Wilshere "tapped him up", and Mertesacker and Arteta both convinced him to join as well. Gazidis then went out and got the deal done. We wanted a loan, Man Utd wanted a permanent deal, Wenger ideally wanted a loan w/ option to buy. Wenger was in Rome at the time, reffing a charity football match, so the idea that business doesn't get done while he's away doesn't seem accurate.

Incidentally, Cross mentions a few times about how players have text him asking whether Arsenal would sign anyone or not. Seems like it's not just the fans who get frustrated by our transfer activity.

One of the only times you would want Wenger to be there to over think a deal and put it on hold (IMO).....and he is refereeing a charity match

He signed Alexis while playing header tennis and volleyball on a beach in Rio and signed four players in 2011 while away doing whatever. It's like we're more productive when he's not at the club.


So I've finished the book. If you've read other Arsenal books a lot of the information, particularly regarding the 98-2004 era, the stadium move, the whole board bust-up with Dein and his relationships with Ferguson and Mourinho, isn't anything new. The stuff I've posted in this thread are basically things I didn't know or thought were funny.

To sum up, Wenger is a great human being, very funny but also serious, is incredibly intelligent about many things and not just football, is an excellent man manager and coach. There are many accounts of players crediting him with prolonging their careers, players becoming more confident under him, players improving technically under him, etc. His man management style is to basically be engaging and rewarding. He doesn't get angry at players often, as he feels it minimises the impact it can have in certain situations if you get angry all the time. Staff have a lot of good things to say about him.

He has his way and sticks by it. He doesn't delegate, he's loyal to his staff and doesn't like changing it, he doesn't focus much on the opposition preferring instead to focus on his own team, he believes in science but often ignores scientific (read: medical) advice, he places a lot emphasis on getting value for money and is notoriously indecisive when it comes to transfers. Basically, for these reasons, Arsenal have fallen behind over the last decade.

Mertesacker/Arteta and future captain Jack

Great stuff Jay, thanks for this review.

GoonerJay29 wrote:More transfer stuff:

-- Arsenal thought they had Higuain wrapped up before the price was hiked up. Arsenal refused to meet the increased valuation, as Wenger saw it as a point of principal.

-- Wenger refused to meet Nasri's agent fees, and is generally not keen to pay out a lot on agent fees. Apparently this was another reason why the Higuain move didn't happen.

Great stuff Jay, thanks for posting.

What I get from this read is that Wenger has too much control at the club for his own good (and everyone else involved)

From a footballing perspective most of the stuff is positive, players like him and respect him, he likes them back, he has been successful no problem.

But these off field reports are just problematic. Why does he refuse advice from the medical team? Why is he involved in transfer dealings with agents and clubs? It doesn't surprise me that we seem more successful in that front while Wenger is away. Why does he not hire competent first team coaches and why is he offended when Bould is praised for something? Why trust Grimandi so much when he spent two years scouting Yaya *bleep* Sanogo, or Chamakh or Gervinho, while missing out on Varane, Martial or Pogba? It's because he is a control freak and doesn't seem to trust anyone but his close friends (who are clearly not competent for the jobs they do)

Seriously some of the stuff I'm reading is really concerning... we either need Kroenke or Gazidis to stand up to him and stop this "100% control" crap or simply get a new manager and start from the beginning. I will always be thankful for what Wenger has done but he doesn't need to control everything possible around the club, he is not the only competent person in the world.

The impression I get is that he has almost too much respect. Wenger's love and passion for the club seems to put people off actually changing things, and Kroenke made a point of not interfering with what Wenger was doing.

Cross made a point of contrasting Wenger's methods with Ferguson's. Ferguson was keen to delegate to his coaches, and always changed his coaching set-up every few years. He had several assistants throughout his 27 years of managing United, while Wenger's only had two. Arsenal had the same problems year on year because everything was the same.

It probably won't change until Wenger decides to leave. At which point, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the old staff went with him.

My two big hopes for when we get a new manager (hopefully it two years time, regardless of what we achieve before then) are that we 1) adopt a director of football model and 2) completely revamp the coaching set-up.

Always knew Wenger was a megalomaniac

GoonerJay29 wrote:The impression I get is that he has almost too much respect. Wenger's love and passion for the club seems to put people off actually changing things, and Kroenke made a point of not interfering with what Wenger was doing.

Cross made a point of contrasting Wenger's methods with Ferguson's. Ferguson was keen to delegate to his coaches, and always changed his coaching set-up every few years. He had several assistants throughout his 27 years of managing United, while Wenger's only had two. Arsenal had the same problems year on year because everything was the same.

It probably won't change until Wenger decides to leave. At which point, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the old staff went with him.

My two big hopes for when we get a new manager (hopefully it two years time, regardless of what we achieve before then) are that we 1) adopt a director of football model and 2) completely revamp the coaching set-up.

Agree. I've also noticed that many others great managers surrounded themselves with people with a lot of potential, people who eventually got the ability to manage a team. Quieroz and Villas-boas for instance were assistant under Ferguson and Mourinho. Giggs is the next Man u manager and he's LVG assistant.

Ordered my copy.

20 years of Arsene. Feels unreal. There are Arsenal fans who were born after he took charge of Arsenal. Unbelievable