My Life in Red and White by Arsene Wenger

Author:Arsene Wenger [Wenger, Arsene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781474618274
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2020-10-12T23:00:00+00:00

7

THE INVINCIBLES

At the start of the 2003–04 season, I repeated to the players what I had declared earlier: they could win the title without losing. I believed in it, and it was our goal.

I remember every single player in that exceptional team. Obviously, everyone remembers the stars, the players who were the lynchpins: Patrick Vieira, Gilberto Silva, Ray Parlour, Freddie Ljungberg, Robert Pirès, Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry, Lauren, Jens Lehmann and Ashley Cole, who had been at the academy since he was eleven and had debuted with me at Arsenal. There were also two defenders who were fundamentally important.

Sol Campbell arrived at Arsenal in 2001. He had been the mainstay at our north London rivals Tottenham, where his contract with the club was about to expire. No one could have imagined for a single second that he would come to us. To prepare for his arrival, and to discuss conditions, we used to meet at David Dein’s house at around 11 o’clock at night and walk around the neighbourhood, talking until midnight, 1 o’clock in the morning. Only David, Sol, his agent Sky Andrew and I knew what was going on. We were gauging the impact it would have. When I called a press conference to announce the arrival of a new player, and Sol Campbell walked into the room full of journalists, it was a bombshell. Joining us after so many years at Spurs was an outstanding act of courage. And what we feared, knowing the supporters, their passion, their fury, came to pass: he often had a difficult life in London, having to deal with banners calling him a traitor, a Judas. For me, he was a man who had great qualities, an outstanding defender with phenomenal power. He had an enormous impact in the five seasons he was with us and the club would not have been at all the same without him. But I know what he had to endure to play for Arsenal, the pressure of the incessant attacks.

There is, of course, a historic rivalry between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur. To begin with, Arsenal was a south London club that set up in the north of the city, near Tottenham’s territory. More than any other match in the season, the week before a game against Tottenham was unlike any other week within the club. From the Monday onwards, the tension and nerves would be at their most taut. I was more removed. I had come from abroad, but I could still sense this tension very clearly. Anyone who had endured this traditional rivalry would realise that for this one week everybody would be on alert, as if the air-raid sirens could sound at any time. In short, it was more than a mere football match played between two teams of eleven. Within north London families, those who supported Arsenal and those who supported Tottenham would not speak to one another over that weekend. My assistant Pat Rice was tempted to select only the fighters – but it was always the technicians that allowed us to win, such as Robert Pirès or Thierry Henry.

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