Arsene Wenger's Enduring Legacy
Manager marks ten years at the helm of Arsenal FC
Ten years ago his appointment was greeted by calls of "Arsene who?" Very few English fans had heard of him, even fewer knew of his pedigree. Yet after a decade of success
Manchester United and Chelsea were known as glamorous clubs long before Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho arrived, and Newcastle were associated with buccaneering centre-forward play for decades before Kevin Keegan brought Alan Shearer into the fold. Even Bill Shankly, the man who re-invigorated Liverpool in the 60's and began laying the foundations for England's greatest football dynasty, simply tapped into an already rich tradition at Anfield to take the club onto a new level through his unyielding demands for success. Nevertheless, perhaps only Shankly comes close to Wenger for the way in which one man changed the very way that the public perceived a football team.
For decades before Wenger took charge, Arsenal were known as a defensive, even boring, club who always valued results more than performance. That philosophy reached its apogee under George Graham who, despite guiding Arsenal to two League Championships, made the club the most despised and ridiculed team in England, notorious for their negativity and aggressiveness. From his first days in charge at the club, Arsene Wenger made it his mission to destroy sixty years of defensive thinking and so completely alter the entire mindset of Arsenal FC.
Much has been made of Wenger's revolutionary approaches to diet and training, yet those ideas had already been in place on the continent for years. Wenger was simply the first foreign manager to gain success in England, and therefore was the first one to have such methods taken seriously by the average English footballer. Eventually some other manager would have brought those ideas to England. No, Arsene Wenger's true managerial legacy to England could be seen clearly on Saturday when yet another Arsenal victory was punctuated by a goal of stunning brilliance. Robin Van Persie's exquisite winning volley against Charlton was just one in a line of brilliant individual, and team, goals stretching all the way back to Dennis Bergkamp's wonder-goal against Leicester in 1997. It is a collection of goals that most Arsenal fans would have thought impossible in the dark years of Bertie Mee, Don Howe and George Graham. And the players, what about the players? In place of the likes of Peter Storey, Steve Bould and John Jenson came Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira, and now Cesc Fabregas. On the field Arsenal paint gorgeous passing tapestries, convincing even the most diehard Arsenal haters to concede the obvious, that Arsenal play perhaps the prettiest football in Europe, with the possible exception of Barcelona. On their day it is a style of football that is at once pleasing to the eye, yet ruthlessly brilliant in execution. That style is Arsene Wenger's legacy, one which has allowed Arsenal to fill their gleaming new stadium in Ashburton Grove with 60,000 believers every home match, catapulting Arsenal into the elite of European clubs.
Ten years ago no one could possibly have imagined the changes in store for Arsenal Football Club. Now, those changes have been accepted and taken for granted. One man is responsible for transforming an entire football club to its very core.
Take a bow, Monsieur Wenger, and happy anniversary.
