“HE IS RIGIDLY inflexible, convinced his way is the right way.”
So says journalist Gabriele Marcotti in last week’s Sunday Herald.
Marcotti continues : “Talk to Wenger in person and what strikes you most is his combination of certainty and zeal, much like some kind of Ayatollah. It’s not an arrogant type of certainty, it’s simply a serene confidence in his own way of doing things, tempered by an infectious enthusiasm…….
“Wenger is dogmatic to a degree rarely seen in European football. He has a certain system which never changes. Because he only buys players who fit into that system, it is naturally self-perpetuating.
“The only examples which spring to mind of top European coaches equally wed to such tactical dogmas are Arrigo Sacchi and Louis van Gaal. And, perhaps not coincidentally, both have fallen upon hard times after initial success.”
Marcotti points out that Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson are far more pragmatic.
“But for Wenger there is only one path….It’s also about having a certain attacking mindset, based on the short-passing game.”
However, Marcotti reckons that this year might be different since Fabregas is not like Vieira, the giant he replaces.
He says that Fabregas is a continental playmaker, a bit like Guardiola or Pirlo, a player who dictates the tempo of the attack from deep positions.
In re-building his team around Fabregas, he argues, Wenger will have to make some big adjustments this season, a process we are all watching with great interest.
IT’S AN AMBITIOUS and thoughtful piece which tries to cover more ground than you can comfortably address in one article.
I mention it here because I have said similar things myself.
At certain moments, when I’ve been bitterly disappointed by Arsenal’s performance in a big game, I’ve told friends that AW is a radical cleric and a control-freak.
Arsene, unlike most Champions League coaches, has, throughout his 20-year career, made sure that he had complete control of all playing matters: training, players in, players out, loans, squad size, and, of course, team selection.
It is hardly an exaggeration to say that at Monaco for seven years, at Grampus Eight for almost two years, and at Arsenal for nine years, Arsene Wenger has been, simultaneously, coach, manager, Director of Football, general manager, brand manager, spokesman, chief scout, you name it.
Like George Graham, he wants the game played My Way, although his way is vastly different to George’s way, and much more expensive.
Obviously, the club, and the team, have done remarkably well with his ideas over the last nine seasons.
His success is undeniable.
But as the years have rolled on, and as I’ve updated four versions of The Professor between 2001 and 2005, I’ve gradually come to believe that Arsenal is too much of a one-man show on the field (Henry) and off the field (Wenger).
That is one of my themes in the final chapter of the new paperback, which Virgin published last month.
The chapter is titled The Season of Fabregas and Senderos.
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