Premier League: The shameful start, glorious rise and sad slide of Arsene Wenger

It was as a raw and somewhat terrified young reporter that I was sent out on one of my first assignments to Arsenal’s dilapidated old London Colney training base in late 1996.

The task was of a delicate a highly sensitive nature: track down this new, mysterious Arsenal manager named Arsene Wenger and get his comments on a scandal he was being shamefully linked with.

The story is question was clearly too vile to mention in Wenger’s presence and it was with some relief that I drove away from the training ground without finding the man wrongly accused in a tabloid fabrication that never went to print.

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Wenger had an uncomfortable experience of dodging questions from a baying press pack on the steps of Arsenal’s historic old Highbury Stadium as the non-story filtered into the public domain, but this articulate Frenchman handled all the nonsense that was being thrown at him.

You see 20 years ago, the idea that a Frenchman who had barely played the game and comically sounds a bit like Arsenal should be allowed to take over as manager of one of the great names in English football was a turn of events viewed with scepticism by all associated with the game.

These were days when Spice Girls were topping of the charts, Sky Sports were paying just £60m-per-season to broadcast Premier League football and when Chelsea boss Ruud Gullit was the only other non-British manager in a Premier League landscape that included Brian Little at Aston Villa, Martin O’Neill at Leicester, Gerry Francis at Tottenham and Harry Redknapp at West Ham.

“Arsene Who” screamed a headline from one of the nation’s most prominent newspapers and some of the Arsenal players shared the sentiments of a bewildered press pack, with star player Paul Merson among those confused by the arrival of this bespectacled student of the game into a dressing room that was noted for having a strong drinking culture that was tolerated by Wenger’s predecessors.

“What is interesting during my 20 years here is how life has changed,” Wenger told Sunday newspaper reporters last year.

“When I arrived here, I faced a very traditional English football. I was not a welcome face for some.

[WENGER'S 1996 RIVALS: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?]

“All the owners were English, they knew each other and there was a certain way of combat. It was very insular and you could make transfers all year.

“What is amazing now is how the world has change and how quickly that change has happened. In the Premier League now, the owners are American, Russian, Arabic and from all over the world.

“Are the changes good for the game? I don’t know. It remains to be seen. It is very, very different, that’s for sure.

“The Premier League is the most popular league in the world on England and the money being generated by television revenue is incredible compared to what we had when I started at Arsenal.

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“I was a new manager with a huge desire to do well when I arrived and showed that I had the quality to take this club further.

“Twenty years later I’m still here, which is amazing. Clearly I didn’t expect it because this this is a rarity in our job.”

I was present at Wenger’s first press conference as Arsenal boss, as he stood bespectacled in front of a giant Arsenal badge at the old Highbury stadium and tried to convince his audience that he was equipped to replace the failing Bruce Rioch.

To be honest, the initial verdict was we would all need time to be convinced by this man. This would never last, would it?

What we didn’t know then was the new kid on the Premier League block was about to revolutionise the English game for good.

[WENGER'S 10 MOST HUMILIATING MOMENTS AS GUNNERS BOSS]

As he signed rising stars such as Patrick Vieira and Nicolas Anelka for bargain basement prices and transformed Arsenal from a rugged team famed for winning matches 1-0 into a silky Premier League and FA Cup double winning machine in less than two years, it quickly became clear that this guy was no joke after all.

His aura in his dealings with the media were just as captivating as the wonderful football teams he was producing.

A briefing with Wenger has always been a compelling experience and in the more than 1000 occasions I have been in his company for such an event, he has rarely disappointed.

Those of us working for Sunday newspapers used to be ushered into a back room at the club’s training base for a separate press event that always provided endless angles for stories, with this manager able to talk about the game he loves like few others.

From George Weah’s bid to become Liberian President to the precise height of Mont Blanc, Wenger has enlightened us on topics that he could have done without discussing, yet he has succeeded in making us feel as if he was delighted to be wasting time with reporters when he would rather have been on the training ground.

During the glory years that yielded Premier League titles and FA Cup successes on a regular basis, Wenger embraced the rising presence of the media in the game and yet that enthusiasm has waned dramatically in the last five years.

His press conferences may have become a little more brief during the second half of his reign at Arsenal as he has clearly grown tired of a weekly chore that can take place up to four times over a five day period, yet his polite scholar of the game has only occasionally lost his temper with reporters.
 

 
The chipping away of Wenger’s legacy has been one of English football’s sad sideshows in recent years, with back-to-back FA Cup wins in 2014 and 2015 doing little to banish the notion his enduring presence has resulted in staleness and acceptance of the status quo at a club that has failed to win the Premier League title in 12 long years.

The magic dust Wenger sprinkled when he arrived has been blown away and in its place is a rising tide of animosity from critics who have set out their stall to see his removal as quickly as possible.

The ‘Wenger Out brigade’ have become more vocal and noisy in the last couple of years, with last season’s Premier League title near miss the final straw for many who are now hoping the Arsenal boss will make his exit when his contract expires next summer.

The retirement topic has rarely been on the agenda at Wenger’s press conferences, but it is clear that the idea of kicking back and enjoying a quiet life away from the game does not appeal to a man who will celebrate his 67th birthday in October.

When asked whether he is surprised by how content his old foe Ferguson appeared to be after he quit as Manchester United boss three years ago, Wenger offered up these comments to the Sunday newspaper pack.

“I have to say he looks very happy in his retirement. He is lucky because he is interested in horses. When he gets up in the morning, he can go to his horses and watch them in training, so that must be great for him,” he reflected.

“What would I do if I was retired? I love horses as well, but I don’t go to races. I like to ride horses because I was once a farmer you know, but my back would not take riding any more. Maybe I will just watch a lot of football matches when I retire. What else could I do?”

While his unbeaten Premier League title winners of 2004 will be the defining heroes of his era, it’s hard to dispute the icon has way too much power and influence at Arsenal and his dominance at the club may well have held them back during recent years when his reluctance to join the big spending league has diluted his success.

However, he has earned the right to go out on his own terms and whether he succeeds or fails this season, his exit needs come next summer.

Wenger has struggled to embrace a new dawn of the game that has seen clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City benefit from what he sees as ‘financial doping’, with the man once hailed as a visionary of the game looking more like yesterday’s man with each passing season.

It has been a sad and somewhat unnecessary fall from grace for a man who would have been wise to bow out on a high after his team lifted the FA Cup and ended a long wait for a trophy back in 2014.

Now it can only be hoped that the haters stay silent for long enough to allow Wenger to make his exit in a manner that befits a man who brought so much to Arsenal and English football over the last 7305 days.

Wenger should not be remembered as a specialist in failure (as Jose Mourinho cruelly dubbed him), but more a man who struggled to live up to the extraordinary standards he set for himself. It is a crime few before him have been able to commit.

Happy 20th anniversary Monsieur Wenger.