Arsene Wenger: The 20th anniversary of a truly great manager with Arsenal

Arsene Wenger is recognized for his work as the manager of the Arsenal team. No one has seen someone like him since he took charge in September 1996 in north London. The Frenchman added a lot to the English Premier League as well as Arsenal, since he came 20 years ago. So much has changed in this long period, but one thing that has not changed is the superb performance of Wenger, who is funny, urbane, obsessed with data, and fluent in various languages. Before Wenger, the managers in England were typically English. Moreover, the football culture was narrow, contemptuous, and self-congratulatory. Twenty years ago, when the French football coach Arsene Wenger came to England, he began a revolution that transformed the club. With Wenger in his primary full season, Arsenal won the FA Cup and the league. He transformed the fast food and drink befuddled culture of the club. He replaced pints of beer with piles of pasta, brought in new training methods, and changed the playing methods with focus on ball retention and short passing. Wenger made many things popular, including diet, fitness, a sense of joy in the play, and creating a scouting network of football players across Europe.  He also began a revolution in player recruitment, style, and preparatory methods.  And, do not forget his achievements, including Wenger’s influence on the English football, with his favorite player type of the foreign playmaker, which is now ubiquitous.   Furthermore, there were the signings of players that included the hall of fame of the Arsenal team, including names like Freddie Ljungberg, Patrick Viera, Robert Pires, Nicolas Anelka, Emannuel Petit, along with Thierry Henry, the all-time top scorer of the club. Slowly Arsenal became one of the top most teams to triumph over in the league. During the late 1990s and the early 2000s, the most defining contest of the Premiership was the brutal rivalry between Ser Alex Ferguson and Wenger. However, all the things introduced by Wenger, including sports, science, diet, data, exploring in Europe, etc. gradually were followed by all the other English clubs. With this, other clubs overtook him. Wenger’s reign with Arsenal This 20^th anniversary of Arsene Wenger with Arsenal encourages us to evaluate his reign, which is neatly divided into two parts. Today, you can see the career of Wenger’s Arsenal in two halves, where the first half is the glorious one from the year 1996 till 2006, when they won two FA Cup and league doubles, won the final of Champions League, and the title of Invincibles in 2003-04. However, the second half is the subdued and solemn one from the year 2006 till 2016, when the club got knocked out every time in the Champions League’s final 16 stage, did not win even one trophy between the year 2005 and 2014, sold players like Robin Van Persie and Cesc Fabregas, etc. Wenger reached his final chief landmark in March 2014 as the in charge of 1000 games. However, that time the statistics revealed something appalling. They showed that in the initial 500 football games, Wenger won 7 trophies. However, in the following 500 football games, his trophy count was zero. With all these ups and downs, Wenger is still going strong. In fact, he is a truly great manager, who freely ran a team for several years. He is also likely to be the last manager of a leading club in Europe, who is still there in spite of having not won the title for so many years, as Arsenal won its last title in the season 2003-04. Wenger has still one more year to go in his managing contract of Arsenal. He ensures to never discuss the renewal of his contract the next season, but whenever he goes, everybody will miss him. Although, his appearance has changed, one thing that has remained constant is his denial to change. It is hard to think about any other football manager, who has so much of division in public opinion. In these 20 years, Wenger has devoted all this life to the Arsenal club. He has borne abuse for Arsenal, amongst which some came from the own supporters of the club. Still, Wenger has never left his idealism and optimism, or even his humor.  He has rejected England, France, Paris Saint-Germain, and Real Madrid. Everything that he has done is for the club.     Arsenal fans still look through the nostalgic initial 10 years of Wenger’s tenure, when everything seemed possible. Wenger’s tenure with Arsenal is just like a love story, a one that we never want to end, as Wenger himself describes it in a press conference. Although, the love story can be a bit complicated, difficult, and imperfect one because of the second part of his tenure, yet it is complete.