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Arsene Wenger will go Down one of the Best Managers in Football History
By Josh Sippie
They say if you enjoy what you do, you will never work a day in your life. This can most certainly apply to Arsene Wenger and his love for Arsenal, as at 65 years old, he has no desire to retire.
It is not very often that I post an entire interview transcript, but this one deserves a full-on gander. Arsene Wenger recently spoke to SkySports about retirement, and his words were inspiring. Have a look:
"“Retirement? Yes, it crosses my mind sometimes but for no longer than five seconds because I panic a little bit. When we played at Man United, he (Ferguson) came to meet me after the game. I said: ‘Come on, you don’t miss it?’ He says: ‘No.’ He had enough. He goes to every game. But he has (race) horses. I have no horses. Enthusiasm? That is not a problem, honestly. I am more committed than ever for that. I just think the number of times you have done it doesn’t count. It is how much you love what you do that counts."
He went on to add:
"“And the love of what you do is not necessarily diminished by the number of times you’ve done it. Football is new every day. That’s a big quality. It makes you question. Because with every defeat people say: ‘What is this guy doing?’ Every three days you are questioned. You have an exam every three days. You have no way to look back. You have to prepare for the next exam and come out of it with success. So it always demands 100 per cent commitment.”"
It just about goes without saying that Arsene Wenger will go down as the greatest manager in Arsenal history. He has been at the club since 1996 and has become the longest tenured manager in the ever-changing Premier League by far. In fact, since he joined Arsenal, 156 managers have been fired (and counting).
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That sort of consistency is so conducive to building a team that will stand the test of time. Changing managers means different regimes, different approaches, different players and different everything. Even teams like Barcelona have problems when managers come and go. For the past 19 years Arsenal have had zero concerns over a problem that plagues many teams.
Let’s take a look at what Wenger has done, both at Arsenal and for the Premier League in general.
At Arsenal, he has managed nearly twice as many games (1,006) as the next highest total (539 by Bertie Mee). His win percentage (57.19%) is the highest of any manager that had coached more than 25 matches at the club. He has three Premier League titles, six FA Cups and five community shields, all Arsenal career highs as well, and by far.
He may have had twice as long to do it (which is a testament to his credibility in and of itself) but Arsene Wenger will undoubtedly go down as Arsenal’s greatest manager.
Even beyond what he has done for Arsenal, Wenger was one of the first foreign managers to be given a chance in the Premier League and one of the first to scout outside of England for talent, which paved the way for what we see today. He proved to the Premier League that a foreign manager could make it and now the league is fully integrated.
Wenger even revolutionized the diet of the players, which has been modeled by numerous squads since. The Guardian did an excellent piece in 2006 on how Wenger changed English football, and this was just one of the ways.
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It just adds to your credibility when rivals will acknowledge how great you are, and Wenger has had the praise of two pretty quality managers in Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola.
Ferguson said of Wenger: “”Since he has gone there, the success of the club has been fantastic. He has brought the best out of the club. He sticks to what he believes in – and so do his players. That is why he has been there so long. I read some quotes from his players the other day that sum up the situation well. They owe everything to him. That is nice to read.”
Guardiola echoed similar sentiments, saying: “”We have to remember what he (Wenger) has done for football in general, Arsenal is a great team. Arsenal has always been a team that has played very nice football. In sport there are many good things that have nothing to do with winning or losing.”
Guardiola reflects the transformation from “boring boring Arsenal” to what they are today, a systematic, beautiful approach that Arsene Wenger has created over years and years of development
Perhaps the thing Wenger is most known for is his ability to scout future stars out of seemingly nothing at all. Patrick Vieira, Laurent Koscielny, Kolo Toure and Cesc Fabregas were all brought in by Wenger at a young age or from relative obscurity and turned into something special. Those kinds of discoveries are commonplace for Wenger.
More recently, he has uncovered Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud; all of whom form the lifeblood of Arsenal in the present day.
Wenger may have gone through a serious trophy drought in paying off the Emirates, but what came out of it is one of the most state-of-the-art stadiums in the world of football and a continued streak of appearances in the Champion’s League. Now they have come out the other side and Wenger is going to have much more freedom to do as he pleases.
Arsenal chief Ivan Gazidis has acknowledged that Wenger has more power at Arsenal than anyone. He gets what he wants. You would be hard-pressed to find another manager with that kind of leeway given to him from the owner of a club, partially because it is so rare nowadays for a manager to stay at a club for this long.
Gazidis spoke of the prospect of Wenger retiring as well, saying via ESPN FC: “I’d never put an end-date on it.”
Arsene Wenger absolutely revolutionized Arsenal and English football in general. He will go down in history right next to his dear rival Alex Ferguson as one of the best managers to have ever graced the game.
The best part is what Gazidis pointed out – there is no end-date in sight.
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