Wenger, who managed Arsenal for 22 years, shrugs ruefully. “ When you have a rage you are selfish because the people who suffer the most are those around you. unconsciously you constantly give an excuse because you think : ‘ I will see them in one month. ’ When you move out [ of football ], you think it ’ s a act frightening how selfish and one-directional you were. ” Twenty-four years ago, in October 1996, Wenger ’ second submersion in Arsenal began as he became the golf club ’ s unknown fresh coach. He was merely the one-fourth foreign director to have worked in the English top fledge – and the first three had been unsuccessful. Of course Wenger, who went on to win three Premier League titles and seven FA Cups, had a seismic influence on English football. But it is frequently forget how he suffered soon after his arrival .
I wondered how such lies could be written without any evidence or truth, just to smear a man. I was very angry
He writes that “ the pure hostility, lies, nauseating allegations … started with a radio host, a Spurs supporter, so I have been told. I had apparently been spotted in disreputable locations, in absurd situations. ” The baseless rumor intensified. Wenger was living entirely in a London hotel as Annie, his future wife, had however to join him. He recalls that, over breakfast, people looked at him suspiciously or turned away. “ It was intolerable. I wondered whether the global had gone delirious, how such lies could be written without any tell or truth, just to smear a man. I was identical angry. ” Wenger sounds sanguine immediately. “ I was quite surprised by the violence of these allegations because I didn ’ thymine know where they came from and why. But then I thought : ‘ Why am I doing this occupation ? Let ’ s concenter on that. ’ I was 47 years honest-to-god and I knew who I was and what I wanted in life so it didn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate depress me besides much. I had been in Monaco for seven years and in Japan two years before I arrived here. I knew that, in unlike countries, you sometimes face adversity. ”
An Arsenal fan thanks Wenger after he had announced he would leave in May 2018. ‘ The hostility of a section of the fans and the circuit board was unjustified, it was very beastly. ’ Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian Did it shake his affection for England ? “ No. I love England, because it ’ s a state of mania, emotion, of sport and music, and it ’ s brave. But this is besides a state where you have media competition and sometimes it ’ s out of control. ” For Wenger the nadir occurred when Annie ’ s 12-year-old son was hounded by yellow journalism reporters. “ That was not very fair, no, ” he says softly. He held an ad-lib wardrobe conference external Highbury and the way he spoke was so convincing that the lies suddenly stopped. “ But it left something in crowd that were evil, ” he recalls. Years belated caustic supporters still resorted to chants calling him a pedophile. Wenger “ knitted myself a soul in loss and white ” as he showed an unbreakable loyalty to Arsenal. But, as happens so much with great managers, he lingers over the defeats. As a new coach at Nancy, Wenger was stricken by a passing fair before the Christmas bankrupt. He was indeed abandon – “ like a zombi ” – he spent Christmas and the next three weeks alone. He believes “ that dark place ” was “ where I learnt patience, endurance and asperity ”. But as he subsequently tells me and an on-line audience at a defender hot event : “ I had problems in coping with get the better of. I did throw up sometimes and it took me prison term to recover from a kill. I wondered if I am made for this job because when you suffer indeed a lot physically you will not survive. But I had constantly a immediate convalescence. I am an optimist, basically. I thought : ‘ Let ’ s go to the next one. ’ ” be he ever physically ill after an Arsenal defeat ? “ I was more mentally sick. I made 1,235 games for Arsenal and didn ’ t miss one. I can ’ thyroxine remember when I stayed in sleep together to miss prepare in 22 years. But, after get the better of, you never sleep. You have an internal film that goes through your mind. It ’ s a sense of anger, humiliation, hate. The future day you have to put that into perspective but every kill is still a scratch on my kernel. ” In 2003-04, when his Invincibles did not lose a league equal the whole season, he had “ no fear of anything. fair go to a bet on and play – and you will win. I wanted to play the perfective season. normally when you win the Premiership, two or three games former you suffer a loss. I told the players : ‘ You can become deity if you continue to focus. ’ That ’ s what happened. ” The inevitable end to the record unbeaten run came in the fatal fiftieth match, in a controversial defeat against Manchester United at Old Trafford. “ You felt a common sense of injustice because we did not deserve to lose this game, ” Wenger says. “ Rooney got a balmy penalty and, in the foremost 20 minutes, Ljungberg was clear through and Rio Ferdinand should have been sent off. With VAR today he would have gone. What was bad is we climbed Everest and fell to earth again. now you tell the players we have to climb up again. That ’ second unmanageable. ”
Wenger faces up to defeat in the 2006 Champions League final in Paris, with Thierry Henry and Kolo Touré. ‘ If we ’ five hundred played with 11 against 11, we would decidedly have won the european Cup. ’ Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian Wenger was haunted most by the Champions League – and specially the 2006 concluding when, reduced early on to 10 men, they led 1-0 until the 79th hour when they conceded two late goals to Barcelona. “ We had beaten Real Madrid with Ronaldo, Figo, Zidane and Raúl and we did not concede a goal in the hale hard stage. We beat Juventus who had Vieira, Ibrahimovic, Trezeguet. It was enormously thwart. We doubly had chances to score the second finish and if we ’ five hundred played with 11 against 11, we would decidedly have won the european Cup. ” More happily, he has not forgotten the sweetest victories. “ With a young team we won against Madrid with a fantastic goal from Thierry Henry, and when we won in Milan they were european champions. Their crowd stood up and applauded us. Those are moments where you play the game like you want it to be played – as when we won 5-1 at Inter [ in 2003 ]. But you remember the defeats more. ”
Arsenal was a matter of life and death to me, and without it there were some very lonely, very painful moments
Wenger suggests he achieved even more when he kept Arsenal in the Champions League every year after they left Highbury with a huge stadium debt. “ Our wages could not exceed 50 % of the upset so we had fiscal fair act imposed by our banks. Manchester City or Chelsea did not have to observe any fiscal fair play. We lost players to Barcelona, City and Chelsea but we were even only one of two teams who qualified 19 back-to-back years for the Champions League. Overall, we were unusually consistent and doubly we could have won the Premier League but we lacked maturity. ”
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The end in May 2018, after years of discord and cries of Wenger out, was harsh. His distress sounds raw : “ The hostility of a section of the fans and the board was unjustified. I felt as if I ’ vitamin d built the training center and the stadium myself brick by brick … it was very hard, very brutal. Arsenal was a count of biography and death to me, and without it there were some very lonely, very atrocious moments. ” Does it still feel like life and death ? “ Yes, it was my access to the job. When you drive base after a frustration, and you think about the number of people who are destroyed, you have a sense of province, of guilt. I believe there is no other manner for a director than to identify wholly with the club, and to behave like he owns it. ”
Wenger looks on during Arsenal ’ s first Premier League game at the new Emirates Stadium in 2006. ‘ I felt as if I ’ d built the train center and the stadium myself brick by brick. ’ Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian Wenger is excessively discreet to reveal who on the control panel was hostile to him but his exasperation is obvious : “ What I turned down to stay at Arsenal. Real Madrid … ” Wenger has already confirmed he rejected managerial offers from PSG and flush Manchester United. “ Juventus excessively and France and England two or three times. I don ’ thymine complain about that. I guided the baseball club through a very medium menstruation and it ’ sulfur now in a strong status. ” In laying off 55 staff during the current crisis Arsenal besides shut down their scouting department which had done so much groundbreaking exercise for Wenger and Mikel Arteta ’ s squad. Their two marquee signings in the recent transfer window, Thomas Partey and Gabriel Magalhães, had been tracked by the headman scout Francis Cagigao for years. Does this change concern Wenger ? “ Yes, because Cagigao did great oeuvre. I was amazed but what is the real number reason ? surely it was not fiscal because we spent a distribute of money after that. I don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate know if you put the wages together of these 55 people that you can buy a musician with it. ” It frequently looked as if Stan Kroenke, Arsenal ’ s elusive American owner, allowed Wenger to absorb intense criticism while he remained in the shadows. Are Kroenke and his son, Josh, becoming more involve in the club ? “ Yes. But I defended everybody, took the criticism. then, of course, when I left the criticism went more to them. They responded by being more proactive because in the stopping point two years they invested a draw of money. ” What does he make of Mesut Özil ’ south position ? “ For me, Özil not playing is a lay waste to because he is top course. He went through some unmanageable periods and I don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate know what has happened between him and Arteta. Özil is professional. I heard he trains well. He has to keep going because he has the quality to help our clubhouse win important games. ” It has been excessively afflictive for Wenger to return to Arsenal. But, beyond the Covid-19 crisis, is he any closer to going back to the Emirates Stadium as a spectator ? “ I can go back but I have no veridical connection any more with the golf club. So I truly don ’ t know. But I support the club and watch the games. I suffer when we don ’ metric ton succeed and I ’ thousand felicitous when we win. ” Wenger sounds relax. apart from his work at Fifa, where he was appointed as head of ball-shaped development last year, he hush plays football and has moved from his previous position in midfield to cardinal defense mechanism. “ I play charity games every few months. My following game is in November. At my age it takes time to recover. But I normally have Laurent Blanc on my leave and christian Karembeu on my right. so I get away with it. ” Do they win most matches ? Wenger smiles. “ We only win. ” After our interview, and while we wait for the live consequence to start, Wenger says that two Sundays ago he saw a quartet of matches as Arsenal ’ s get the better of of Sheffield United was followed by the surprise of West Ham beating Leicester 3-0, Manchester United being hammered 6-1 by Spurs and Liverpool shipping seven goals against Villa. “ I watched them all, ” he says while admitting that, apart from the missing crowd, he has no explanation for the strange results. Wenger is more emphatic about VAR. “ I am 100 % in favor because I conceded goals when the goalscorer was five metres offside. People forget that. In the Premier League, the right decisions went from 84 % to 95 % last year with VAR, 11 %. That is 10,000 decisions because referees make about 100,000 decisions a season. It ’ s not perfect. If a striker is offside because he has his nose in front, that ’ s a sting absurd. ” He is just adenine engaged when he and I talk on-line before he takes questions from the audience. Matthew Greenfield asks : “ Arsène, being such a knowing man, do you feel your skills were wasted on football ? Could you have been a politician ? ”
Wenger with the then French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and premier minister Gordon Brown. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian Wenger laughs. “ I don ’ metric ton think therefore. I don ’ thymine feel particularly wise. I was good passionate and I tried to master my heat. My demons were inside me and how I behaved was not necessarily how I felt inside. I was made for contest. But I would say football has a responsibility in the worldly concern today. The time when we think football and politics are two separate departments is over. ” Before reading Paul Newsom ’ south question I explain to the audience that Wenger never liked broccoli – despite the platitude that he force-fed it to his players. “ Is there any british cuisine that you became particularly affectionate of while living here ? ” Newsom asks before offering suggestions of curry sauce and chips, Yorkshire pudding and Quavers. “ I was never a fan of broccoli, ” Wenger exclaims, “ but I love yorkshire pudding. The quality of food in England has improved in the last 10 years enormously. ”
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The minor son who once milked cows and carried a entreaty book to football matches is 70 years old nowadays. He listens cautiously to an anonymous question. “ How did you cope emotionally after leaving Arsenal ? And what advice would you give to person having agitation in his or her life ? ” Wenger looks up and says, a thoughtful as always : “ Well, I tried always to structure my day, to keep disciplined and in touch with people, to try to improve my cognition of the game, to understand club. I tried to become a better person. I had the frustration I could not get my football drug. So that was difficult. But, you know, clock time is a estimable doctor. It heals the annoyance. ” Arsène Wenger ’ s My Life in Red and White ( Weidenfeld & Nicolson ) is available from the Guardian Bookshop