The Periodic Table of Football by Nick Holt

Author:Nick Holt [Holt, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ebury Press

ARSÈNE WENGER

(France, Coach)

When Arsenal sacked Bruce Rioch after a disappointing season in 1995–6, no one expected the next appointment would be an unheard of Frenchman managing a club in the J-League in Japan. Apparently Glenn Hoddle played his part, recommending with some enthusiasm a coach he played under at Monaco when they won the French league in 1988.

There was little precedent for such a move at the time – overseas coaches had not enjoyed much success in Britain. But when Wenger arrived perceptions about foreign managers quickly changed. Over the next ten years he built a team that challenged Manchester United for the major honours in England. United edged the contest, but Arsenal’s ‘on’ years were outstanding: they won the double in 1998 and 2002 and finished an entire Premier League season unbeaten in 2004, a quite phenomenal achievement.

It was done in the main with astute foreign imports. Wenger inherited a formidably sturdy defence (Adams and Co.) and Dennis Bergkamp, but needed more. He brought in Patrick Vieira to match Keane at United and added the pace of Overmars and the finishing of Nicolas Anelka (replaced after 1998 with Thierry Henry). Others were bought young and developed, like Cesc Fàbregas. It was a blueprint others would follow, despite accusations it had a negative effect on the development of young English players.

Wenger also paid great attention to diet, psychology and computerised statistics not yet the norm in England. It was a methodology that many of the better English managers adopted, notably Sam Allardyce and Steve McClaren.

Wenger’s teams play excellent sophisticated, scientific football. They have fallen away in the last decade partly through having less cash to burn than Chelsea or the Manchester clubs, and partly through a blind spot regarding defensive players. You can’t win the league with some of the central defenders Wenger has deployed and no top-quality replacement for Patrick Vieira. There are signs another really good team is emerging, this time with a core of young British players.

Chemical reaction: the addition of new and unfamiliar theories will always bring change.

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