WENGER’S UNITED NATIONS
How Arsene created football magic from two gangs... the Brit boozers and Euro smokers
IT WAS 19 years ago but might as well be from a totally different universe.
Arsene Wenger, the littleknown Frenchman branded “Arsene Who?” when he arrived in 1996, became the first foreign manager to win the Premier League within two years.
Back then, Fergie ruled the roost, there were more British players than foreigners, and yet Wenger’s Double-winning team in the 1997/98 season sparked a French revolution which completely changed the face of English football.
Wenger took over a team still gripped by a booze culture, the marble halls of Highbury were a constant reminder of the traditions and history of the club, and suddenly Arsenal’s famous back four were being asked to do stretching exercises as if they were ballet dancers.
It was a remarkable time full of memories, big characters and Wenger was clever enough to embrace the old, bring in the new, and guide the Gunners to a period of unprecedented success.
He revolutionised diet, training – a stopwatch on every session – and banned booze from the players’ bar, while still enjoying the banter that went with managing the likes of Tony Adams, Ray Parlour, Ian Wright and Steve Bould.
One of the first things he did was to move the club’s training ground from the antiquated old university pitches at London Colney. The students needed them on Wednesday which meant the players invented the ‘Tuesday Club’ boozing sessions as they had the next day off.
Former Arsenal striker Alan Smith recalled: “I remember back at the old training ground, there used to be physio Gary Lewin’s little treatment door as you came in and, if you had to do some exercises, you’d be lying out in the corridor, doing straight leg lifts as everybody walked past. It’s incredible when you look back.”
That is how it was until, legend has it, one of the youth
team players had a mishap wth a tumble dryer, the training ground building burnt down, and Arsenal decamped to the nearby Sopwell House Hotel every day to get changed.
Wenger later paid for a new £12million training ground complex with the money from Nicolas Anelka’s sale to Real Madrid. But until the Wenger revolution really kicked in during the 1997/98 season, the old spirit and camaraderie also helped them to a new era of success.
Even in the summer of 1997, old habits died hard. Wenger (right) gave the players one night off from their spa training resort in Bad Waltersdorf.
“I’ll always remember the first pre-season tour with Arsene,” Parlour recalled. “New French lads had come into the team, like Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit and Gilles Grimandi. We worked our socks off and, at the end of the trip, Wenger said we could all go out.
“We went straight down to the pub and the French lads went to the coffee shop. I’ll always remember the moment Steve Bould went up to the bar and ordered 35 pints for five of us. Later we spotted the French lads in the coffee shop and they were sitting around smoking.
“I thought, ’How are we going to win the league this year? We’re all drunk and they’re all smoking’. We ended up winning the Double.”
Needless to say, Wenger clocked it, clamped down and led Arsenal to glory. They had a great start, a dodgy middle which was resolved by a players’ meeting – Marc Overmars and Petit (with Wenger, above) were ordered to work harder after a home defeat to Blackburn – and they never looked back.
The incredible run-in to the title included a win at Manchester United – Overmars scoring the winner in March 1998 – which helped Wenger dethrone Sir Alex Ferguson as king of the Premier League.
Former Arsenal full-back Nigel Winterburn, who had 13 glorious years at the club, recalled: “The ’98 team was the best I played in. The players we had and the players Wenger brought in complemented each other.
“That came to fruition very quickly with the 1998 Double team. It had everything – pace up front, goals, Overmars out wide, power in midfield. It was unbelievable.
“It could dig out a result from nowhere. It could play football but scrap it out as well.
“It’s very difficult to rate it against 2002 and ’04. I’d say those three teams would give a hell of a game to each other, if that makes sense, and I wouldn’t like to pick a winner. They are so different.”