Wenger Arsène - Arsène Wenger : fifty defining fixtures

To my three Junior Gunners Charlotte, William and Josie. And to Claire, my rock.

First published 2014

Amberley Publishing
The Hill, Stroud
Gloucestershire, GL5 4EP

www.amberley-books.com

Copyright Layth Yousif, 2014

The right of Layth Yousif to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781445642215 (PRINT)
ISBN 9781445642437 (eBOOK)

Typesetting and Origination by Amberley Publishing.
Printed in the UK.

What attracted me to make my seismic move across North London from N17 to N5 was the thought of playing with truly great players in a truly great team, the challenge to win top trophies year in, year out, while competing in a gloriously attacking side that also contained as many warriors as it did winners.

In short, a team led by Arsne Wenger.

I was fortunate enough to win many medals while playing for Arsne, and it is my sincere belief that one day people will look back at the Arsenal side of 2003/04 the Invincibles team and say, Do you know what? That was a once in lifetime team.

There were many leaders in that side, tough players who played for the badge, the club, the team, and most importantly, for each other. Equally, we had numerous skilful, attacking players that struck fear into many an oppositions defence. And we should never forget it was a team that was assembled by Arsne Wenger, who along with Herbert Chapman is arguably the most important manager in Arsenals proud history, and certainly one of the most successful.

Quite simply, I am proud to have played for Arsenal, proud to have played with many of the players I did, and proud to have played under Arsne Wenger, and this book brings back a lot of memories of my time in the red and white.

I have got to know Layth as a journalist who has interviewed me for the London Evening Standard, The Gooner and Sabotage Times, and what has struck me is his love, knowledge and passion for Arsenal Football Club. I hope this shines through in this excellent book that has brought back a lot special of memories for me of playing under Arsne Wenger for the club. I hope it also brings back many special memories for you too. This book is a must-read for Arsenal fans everywhere.

Sol Campbell
July 2014

All it actually took for Arsenal to cement their place as one of the biggest clubs in world football was for one man to revolutionise our beloved institution. That man was Arsne Wenger.

When he arrived, we didnt even own our own training ground, the players often having to play second fiddle to university football teams at London Colney. When the team played on a rare trip to the United States, Gunners stalwart Ken Frair was asked by a brash American: Weve got 25,000 parking spaces around our stadium how many you guys got? Only for modest Ken to answer: Sixty. The man was hushed into silence. 60,000? Now that it amazing. Mr Friar shuffled his feet before answering honestly, if a tad sheepishly, No, sixty.

Now we have a state-of-the-art stadium, which is sold out for every game, with our only debts being manageable ones owing to the stadium. We have won eight trophies under Wenger, including three titles, two doubles and five FA Cups, not forgetting we were the first London team to appear in the Champions League final, with our heroic ten-man team only 17 minutes from eternal glory against the best team in the world.

We have qualified for the Champions League a record seventeen years in succession, and we are respected throughout the planet for our superb attacking football, hailed for our attacking players, for our genuine commitment to playing football, and for our insistence on raising young players to play the right way the number of Arsenal youngsters Wenger has nurtured, who despite not making the grade at our club, have gone on to make a career in professional, is astounding.

He also created a team that emulated a feat not achieved in English football for 116 years, and has sculpted teams and players that will live on forever in the memory.

All these laudable ideals occurred because our board, in late summer 1996, had the far-sightedness to appoint a bespectacled Frenchman who had no prior experience of English football either as a player or a manager, and who was plying his trade in far off Japan at the time. On paper, the decision to appoint Arsne Wenger seemed incredulous, bordering on madness but, my word, what an era it heralded.

For someone like myself, a season ticket holder for thirty years, and one who has attended the majority of Wengers 1,000-plus fixtures, to whittle down the number to a mere fifty was extremely hard. The number of conversations I have had with fellow Gooner friends on the subject has provoked fierce debate.

Every game means something special to somebody but what I have tried to do is write about the ones that had a far greater impact on the club. Fixtures that symbolised an era, a time, an ethos; fixtures that explained a strategy; fixtures that a won trophy; fixtures that lost a trophy; fixtures that told the story of a season; fixtures that were a snapshot of a rivalry; fixtures that would never be forgotten for good or bad. In short, Arsne Wengers fifty defining fixtures.

You may not agree with my all my choices in truth I wouldnt expect you to but what I would hope this book and my writing will do is to prompt some discussions of your own, and help recall some good memories. So read on to find out which matches made my list and why.

And if youd like to discuss it further please follow me @laythy29 and tweet me using the hashtag #AW50, and let me know which games you think I should have included.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the memories this book prompted, as much as I did when writing it.

Layth Yousif
July 2014

The 1996 Arsenal AGM was held in the first week of September in one of Highburys distinguished oak-panelled rooms. Normally a placid affair interspersed with the rubber stamping of minor points of order, the meeting held that year was one of the fieriest and most tempestuous anybody could remember.

Shareholders, the majority of them long-standing supporters of the club, were up in arms over the way the previous managerial incumbent, Bruce Rioch, had been relieved of his duties. They were also concerned at the lack of visible movement from the club on appointing a new manager.

The chairman, Old Etonian Peter Hill-Wood, the latest of three generations of his family to run the club, and a City man to the core, was unused to such open hostility. He told the many disaffected stakeholders, in words that would come to be seen as prophetic and visionary, yet seemed anything but on that day, We have acted in the best interests of the club. We have identified a replacement of considerable reputation who has agreed to join us. We cannot announce his appointment officially, as we have given an undertaking not to do so.

In a touch of farce, which eventually brought comic relief to the fraught proceedings a voice from the floor asked innocently, An undertaking to who, Mr Chairman?