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In the history of football, perhaps there hasn’t ever been a manager at a club whose name sounds astoundingly similar to the name of the club as Arsene Wenger is to Arsenal FC.
Wenger’s arrival at Highbury in October 1996 sparked reactions from fans and even players asking “who is this guy?”. Being an unknown figure in English football, the Evening Standard greeted his arrival with the headline “Arsene Who”. Now, the fans and players would certainly not want him to ever leave the club. Wenger came on top as first choice over the bookmakers favourite Johan Cryuff, and no one expected much of him at the time, perhaps not even the then Arsenal captain Tony Adams. But, Wenger soon dispelled the doubts over his appointment.
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Trophies
In his first season at the club he led Arsenal to a third place finish narrowly missing out on Champions League qualification that year, but the performances made the Arsenal future look bright in the hands of the “Nutty Professor”. Wenger’s first full season at the club opened the trophy cabinet under his name by coming back from an 11 point deficit to lift the premier league trophy and the FA Cup came just two weeks later, winning the double for only the 2nd time in club’s history.
The Frenchman was scrupulous in his squad construction, bringing in the likes of Patrick Viera, Emmanuel Petit, Nicolas Anelka and Marc Overmars in his first full season in charge adding to a team that already possessed the likes of David Seaman, Tony Adams and Dennis Bergkamp. After their double, the Gunners were left barren after missing out on trophies – a FA cup semi-final loss to Manchester United, a FA Cup final loss to Liverpool, and the UEFA Cup on penalties to Galatasaray. Such results caused some of the players to opt for newer pastures in search of trophies and even Wenger was rumoured to be heading for the exit at the time, to which he refused in order to stay at the club signing a new deal.
In 1999, the club’s all time record goal scorer, Thiery Henry was signed by Wenger. However, he didn’t earn any title at the club until another double in 2001-02 and what was sweeter about the premier league that season was that the victory came at the “Theatre of Dreams” Old Trafford. This time the double led to further success at the club as they successfully defended the FA cup in 2003 and the year 2004 was perhaps the greatest for Wenger as the Gunners manager; his side went a complete season unbeaten to win the premier league at White Hart Lane, the only place they could have bettered winning the 2002 title.
Players
Apart from the trophies, Wenger had perhaps some of the most successful transfers till day for the club and his eye for talent is unmatched; signing the likes of Patrick Viera, Emmanuel Petit, Thiery Henry, Jens Lehmann, Robin Van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor, Cesc Fabregas, Alex Song, Ashley Cole and many more. As much Wenger has been loyal to the club during its success and failures, some of the players opted for greener pastures during the failures.
But the departure of the players did not affect Wenger’s tactics to a great extent as despite the losses, the Gunners manager continued to develop the team in a way to overshadow the losses. However, losing the players did result in the lack of trophies in a long drought since the 2005 FA Cup success. Arsenal have been losing some of their top players at the club every year since then; Patrick Vieira, Robert Pires (2005), Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole (2006), Thierry Henry, Freddie Ljungberg, Jose Reyes (2007), Aleksandr Hleb (2008), Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure (2009), Edu (2010), Gael Clichy, Fabregas, Samir Nasri (2011), Robin Van Persie and Alex Song (2012). Most of them were nurtured by Wenger and developed into world class players.
Such departures left big boots to be filled at the club, and in the previous season Arsenal managed to retain most of the players from 2012, which resulted in the first trophy at the Emirates and the jinx was finally broken.
Champions League
The club ended with a miraculous top 3 finish after their disastrous start in the 2011-12 season. Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United have all lost their permanent status in the top 4 of the league at least for one season. But the Gunners despite their financial constraints and player departures have not had a single season in which they did not compete amongst Europe’s finest since Wenger’s arrival at the club. The consistency that Wenger brought to the club at the highest level of European Football is perhaps the biggest achievement for him at Arsenal.
Recent success at the FA Cup for Arsenal and Wenger seems like the beginning of a new journey that is going to unfold at Emirates and the Gooners would hope the journey would bring more success to the club. At 64, perhaps it is time for Wenger to consider retirement but there is still one trophy that he would want to add to his records at the club – the Champions League.
