The Professor captured the style and glory years of Bergkamp & Vieira, Pires & Henry & Ljungberg, plus Adams, Dixon, Keown, Parlour & Winterburn, the Englishmen who gave them a platform to play on.
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Exerpt from April-May 2000
He’s given people patience. And a lot of love.
Tony Adams
In the Champions League semi-final, Manchester United had lost to Bayern Munich on away goals, so Ferguson’s fairytale was over. When the press said Veron was a luxury player who had disrupted their shape, Ferguson erupted at Carrington, the training ground, swearing at reporters. Defending Veron, his parting words were, `He’s a f******* great player.’ He added `Youse are all f****** idiots.’ Skipper Roy Keane also spoke out, questioning the commitment of some United players. “
When reporters next saw Wenger, he mischievously asked, `What are all these asterisks in the newspaper?’ He said that he never thought that Arsenal might not win the title. `It does not cross my mind. I don’t know if Alex Ferguson is rattled or if he will congratulate us if we do it, but the table doesn’t lie. It’s always right. We have coped with the pressure and we will show it again in what is a big pressure game. You do not take your foot off the pedal when you are so close.’
He highlighted the turning point: the 2-1 win at Liverpool with ten men.
He said that victory was the day the players really believed they could win the Premiership. `This season is the season of the squad, a mental strength that has kept us together. What relaxes me is knowing the effort the team is putting in. I have never had to ask myself this question this season. I can go home knowing this team will give their last drop of blood for me.’
After the Cardiff consummation, Wenger said the players felt relief after such a long wait for another trophy. They had dinner together, but it was a low-key affair because everyone knew that the job was not yet done. He said, `We expect United to be at their best, don’t worry about that. They won’t want to lose the title on their own ground, but we don’t want to lose it, either. Winning the title at Old Trafford will have no special significance.’
Gooners who read that comment must have giggled. Winning the title at Old Trafford will have no special significance? Who did Arsene think he was kidding? It would be wonderful to win the title in Sir Alex F*******‘s own back yard, but it would also be fantastic to win it with a win, rather than a draw. The league is about points, of course, but psychological ascendancy over your main rivals is very important.
Wenger made three changes: Keown for Adams, who had a knee injury, Edu for Henry, and Kanu for Bergkamp. Henry had `a small knee injury’. Outside the stadium the United fans were not really buzzing, since they did not give Everton a prayer at Highbury on the final day. Wenger looked relaxed on the bench, because it was a win-win-win situation. He already had silverware in the bank and if he did not win tonight a draw would be enough for the title, and even if he lost Arsenal would still be champions on Saturday.
It was extraordinary how the match reflected the temperaments of the rival managers: United were spiky and energetic, while Arsenal were also combative, but in a more cerebral manner, more detached and in control of their game. The Red Devils started aggressively to show Keane they still had fire in their bellies, and they had a few near-misses before the real mayhem began. Referee Paul Durkin issued three yellow cards in six minutes after Scholes clattered into Edu, Phil Neville scythed down Wiltord, and Keane came in late as Vieira controlled a high-bouncing ball. Keane’s boot just missed Vieira’s thigh, but his arm smacked Vieira’s face. That was the end of Keane and the end of the contest, really.
Edu was busy, competitive and positionally solid, the revelation of the night.
When Silvestre moved up the left he lost possession to Parlour, who passed short to Wiltord, who found the diagonal run of Ljungberg, who beat Blanc and hit a low shot. Barthez saved and the ball rebounded to Wiltord on his weaker left foot … and he scored the goal that won the Double.
When the final whistle came, the beaming Wenger was hugged by physio Gary Lewin, Edu lifted Ljungberg off his feet, Wiltord and Lauren danced a jig of delight, and Wenger walked over to embrace Vieira. He had seen his men produce a truly heroic team performance, a classic of containment and counter-attack, with the defensive and offensive elements executed confidently. It was exactly the kind of away performance they needed in the Champions’ League.
Winning the title again was even more satisfying than it had been in 1998, said Wenger, who regarded this Double as his greatest achievement in England.
`I feel very happy because this team got what they deserved and we did it in style. I personally believe that what this team has achieved is tremendous and will remain in history. We have 84 points, we have played 19 games away in the League without losing one and we have scored in every game. The character of this team is extraordinary. This is not only a team of good players. It is a team of togetherness. We wanted there to be a shift of power. Winning it in my first full season almost felt natural, but I have lost a few times since then and realised how hard it is.’
The papers gave high praise to the new champions the next day, when the best headline was on a Tim Rich piece in The Independent: WENGER’S INVINCIBLES CLAIM GRAND PRIZE IN BARE-KNUCKLE TITLE FIGHT.
There was a festival atmosphere at Highbury as Lee Dixon led out the side against Everton in his last game before retirement. After imbecilic defending by Alan Stubbs and Stepanovs, among others, they won 4-3. Henry, playing with his right knee strapped, scored twice and crossed for sub Francis Jeffers to head Arsenal into a 4-2 lead. Bergkamp had netted the first and generously set up the second for Henry, whose 24 league goals won him the Golden Boot.
Then came the presentations. The 22 players who had played ten games or more collected their medals, as did Pat Rice, Gary Lewin and first team coach Bora Primorac. Then, at last, came Robert Pires and, as he held up the trophy, the other players bowed down to him in a we-are-not-worthy salute. The pantomime was amusing but also a sincere statement of thanks, for without the consistent creativity of Pires they would not have been collecting these medals as champions. He had been voted Footballer of the Year by the English journalists.
Liverpool had finished second, with Dudek and Riise proving to be phenomenal signings. Manchester United, now demoralised, were third after a 0-0 draw with Charlton, their first scoreless game in the Premiership for three years. Arsenal had 87 points, Liverpool 84 and United 77.
Tony Adams gave an interview to Sky, saying that the manager had won the League this time, not the players.
He explained how much he enjoyed the day-to-day life at the training ground and praised Wenger’s cool leadership and his shrewd deployment of the squad. `It takes a man at the helm. Maybe ’98 was the players winning it, but I do believe it’s the manager that’s won this one. Throughout the season he’s been extremely confident, unflappable. I dunno how best to describe him. But he’s been self-assured, he’s been dignified, he’s been calm, he’s been trusting, he’s been faithful. He’s given people patience. And a lot of love. I think the man deserves all the credit he can get.’
Wenger managed his players with tolerance, accepting their mistakes without being punitive or judgemental. He was also patient because he knew that you succeed after you fail, not before, so he kept faith with the new players and gave them time to settle in. He said, `I am convinced that the biggest problem in modern football is impatience with new players. There are many big examples of this impatience, like when Patrick was at Milan and Thierry at Juventus. All coaches are under a lot of pressure that if a player does not perform in the first six months everybody starts to question our buying policy. Arsenal fans were always very patient with our players and it has worked out. Take Pires this year and Pires last year.’
While 2000-01 had been the season when rotation did not quite work, 2001-02 was the season where enforced rotation, due to a succession of injuries, worked remarkably well.
Bergkamp had needed a year to adjust to not starting every match. Arguably, Wenger’s first choice team was Seaman, Lauren, Campbell, Adams, Cole, Ljungberg, Parlour, Vieira, Pires, Bergkamp and Henry, but that eleven never played once in the sixty games. He had ten in the first two games, missing Bergkamp, and ten in the FA Cup Final, when he was missing Pires. So it was, truly, the season of the squad, and it looked as if, from now on, all seasons would be like this. The concept of the `first team’ had become obsolete. Back in May 2001, Wenger had talked about needing `a depth of stability in defence’, but five players had turned out at left back, including Juan, the young Brazilian who played against Gillingham, and there had been a bewildering succession of centre-back partnerships. Three goalkeepers collected medals, which was unprecedented.
Despite all that disruption, the improvement in their defensive record during February, March, April and May was staggering: they had not been behind in a Premiership game since Fowler scored at Elland Road on 20 January. Team spirit had played a big part, confidence had grown while the vehicle was motoring, but the consistency, the twelve clean sheets, still seemed somewhat hard to explain. Perhaps the return of Adams and Dixon, who were training with the team again, had made everything more solid. Lauren admitted that Dixon had given him tips about positioning, and he was now covering runs instead of ball-watching. The clean sheets really started when Seaman came back to the side in February, and Campbell’s recovery pace meant that mistakes could usually be rectified.
The professor, a master of man-management and mind-management, had guided his team to a 29-game unbeaten run in domestic football. It was revealed that Wenger held a team meeting on 23 December where he asked the players to stop getting red cards. Bergkamp was sent off after that, against Liverpool, and Luzhny went at Blackburn, but maybe there was no mystery about their improved disciplinary record. Success generally improves a team’s behaviour. Players get red cards when they are struggling and frustrated and losing, not when they are cruising and winning. Patrick Vieira had played more than anyone else, but produced only half a dozen great games in all competitions. He was pacing himself, like most of the French World Cup winners, planning to peak in Japan in June. Often he was sloppy in the first half, much better in the second, perhaps after Wenger had a word.
Freddie Ljungberg had been playing exceptionally well when he was injured in January. He came back in March and was red hot in April and May. He scored the vital first goal so often. Of his seventeen goals, eleven were first goals. Two of the other six goals were in matches where he had scored the first goal. He was the first player to score in consecutive FA Cup Finals for forty years.
Remarkably, Wenger had sorted out their away form in the Premiership.
Their record had improved from five wins, seven draws and seven defeats to fourteen wins and five draws, so his next task was obvious: to improve Arsenal’s away form in Europe.
How would he do that? By signing players who would slightly change Arsenal’s style, allowing more flexibility and greater possession? Did he now accept that the high-tempo attacking which worked so well at Highbury, and which destroyed Juventus and Bayer Leverkusen, does not work away from home in the Champions’ League?
They needed to keep the ball for longer, consolidate at the back, and score some goals from crosses. Their definitive away performance was in Lyon, when they kept possession well and Henry headed home a cross by Ashley Cole and they won 1-0. That match always looked like a template to follow for the future, but they never played well enough to repeat that victory, although they were close in Leverkusen.
On 13 May, Wenger was quoted in L’Equipe saying, `I can’t imagine finishing my life without winning the European Cup.’
Two days later he flew to Glasgow to see the European Cup Final in which Real Madrid met Leverkusen. The German underdogs, without Ze Roberto and skipper Nowoty, outplayed Madrid, but they were beaten by a stunning volley from Zidane.
Wenger’s contract was due to end in 2005, by which time he would have been managing Arsenal for nine years, but Ashburton Grove looked unlikely to open before 2005-6. In the meantime, he was still enjoying his daily work at Shenley and he loved the competition, the matches. As he said, `It’s the life I wanted.’
When George Graham was sacked in 1995, the directors had resolved that no future manager would ever have that much power again, but Wenger now oversaw a vastly expanded operation with many coaches, physios, masseurs and other full time staff. In 1996 Ashley Cole had been a 14-year-old boy looked after by a part-time schoolteacher who earned £45 a week, but now he was a 21-year-old playing for England in the World Cup.
Film director Orson Welles, a maverick genius, once called RKO Studios `the biggest electric train set a boy ever had,’ but Arsene Wenger would probably say that managing Arsenal was the biggest train set a French boy ever had. A man motivated by an ideal of how the game could be, he was now close to creating his perfect football machine: a stylish, athletic, attacking team which could keep clean sheets.
Since London is the biggest city in Europe, it was logical for Arsenal to try to become the biggest club in the world. A new stadium alone cannot do that, of course, but it could provide the money to make winning the European Cup more likely. Or maybe Arsenal could reach the final next year. Could Arsene Wenger win the European Cup at Old Trafford in May 2003?
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Yes, those were the days. Powerhouse players capable of swift penetration.
If you missed The Professor as a paperback in 2008, you can now read it as an eBook from Apple’s iTunes bookstore.