By Myles Palmer
It happened again this morning.A French reporter asked me, “What does Arsene think of The Professor?”
For the last thirteen months, since the book came out in hardback, people have asked me two questions.
The first is: Are you a Arsenal fan?
And the answer is : I’m a writer, not a Gooner.
A writer is somebody who is always looking for something worthwhile to write about.Something that deserves to be written about.
And this writer always wanted to do a book about football.
This writer used to say to a certain Scot, “George,when are we doing your book?” And George’s reply was,”I’m too young.”
The second question is: What does Arsene think of The Professor?
I don’t know. I’ve never asked him and he’s never told me.
And I have to own up here: During the million hours I spent writing The Professor, I didn’t worry AT ALL about what Arsene would think. I was too busy trying to make the deadline.
I had met Arsene over 100 times, sat around in the sunshine outside Sopwell House with six reporters round a table on the lawn, asked him many questions at postmatch press conferences.
And thought: I like the guy, he knows I like him, that’s enough.The book’s all about what he’s done with his team, how can that be a problem?
But I also thought: I’ve got tons of material here for an interesting book.
He never does one-on-one interviews with English journalists anyway. He prefers to keep his distance.That’s his style and it saves time, allows him more focus.
Yes, I enjoyed being in George’s office, with just the two of us.But was never gonna be like that with Arsene.
And unlike many reporters(who enjoy the intimacy, or the illusion of intimacy with certain managers)I thought it was fairer to just do press conferences, to give everybody the same time, the same quotes,and have no favourites.
I made that point in the book. But I now realise I should have explained my views on that more fully.
I told Arsene I was writing the book and asked to see him. And I spoke to him on the phone, told him the book was almost finished, and promised to send a copy before publication. And he said,”Thanks very much.”
And Virgin sent him the hardback.And year later, in August 2002, when the updated version was coming out, they sent him the paperback.
I see The Professor as a handsome, thoughtful tribute to the most original manager in England.
If I was famous, and somebody wrote such a flattering book about me, I would be ecstatic, even if the book did criticise me on a few points.
BUT I DO NOT KNOW WHAT HE THINKS OF IT.
My overview was this : Arsene Wenger arrived one Sunday morning off an overnight plane from Japan in 1996 and I liked him immediately.
He was different. I knew he was special straight away, just as I knew within two minutes that George Graham would make things happen.
So I went home that Sunday and wrote up the whole day, the entire press conference, in detail.All my thoughts. They covered many pages on my computer.
I wanted to record my first impressions. Because memory plays tricks. What we think we thought six years ago is never quite what we thought six years ago.
As my Dad used to say, “There’s no memory like the pen and ink.”
Those impressions were never published. They just gathered dust on my hard disc.
Then, four years later, Virgin asked me to write a synopsis for a book.
Then Virgin said: stick closely to the synopsis.
So I used my first impressions in the opening chapter. I called it PROLOGUE: MISSION STATEMENT.
And most of the book is like that. Most of the 300 pages are my descriptions and judgements of events AS I SAW THEM AT THE TIME.
It’s not a story reconstructed with hindsight. Most of it is what I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears at the time, over a six year period.
So the book, really, took six years to write.
And it’s a bit quirky in places, as ANR readers would expect.
And then, at the end, all that raw material was tweaked,polished, edited into shape. But not so much that all the juice and detail was squeezed out of it.
The enjoyment of writing is, for me, a private thing. It’s fun when you think of a good line. One of my favourite lines came when I described a game in Greece against PAOK Salonica :
Like any great team player, Bergkamp improved the play of those around him. A good team is always balanced, and Bergkamp balanced Arsenal. He made the team swing. When he was absent the attack was like a door hanging off one hinge.
Basically, The Professor starts by describing what Arsenal was like in 1996. And what English football was like in 1996.
And after that it is a narrative of the seasons, an evolving story. It’s reportage and analysis.
If you write an honest book, and you try to make fair judgements, and you do the best you can in the time you’re given, and you re-write every page five times, then you don’t worry about reviews.
I did NOT worry about reviews.Maybe I should have done, but I didn’t.I asked my publicist Fiona to send me all the reviews together at the end of October 2001, but she never did. And I had forgotten by then anyway.
My theory is that books have a life of their own. They turn up in odd places and surprise you.
Like records.When I managed groups we used to say : Vinyl is never wrong. Make a cheap record, it will propel you forward in some way.
That was our motto: Vinyl is never wrong. We had many mottos. Our label was called 4-Play : Sounds for Engaged Couples.
When we came back from Portugal this year my mate Mitch said,”Martin went horse racing as guest of the Victor Chandler bookmaking organisation. And his host was a mad Arsenal supporter who said, ‘I’m reading this brilliant book called The Professor.You must get it.’ And Martin said, ‘I know Myles.’ And the guy said ‘No!’ And Martin said, ‘I know Myles very well.’”
Lee Kosmin, a singer we managed, phoned last month.He said his younger brother Dean, who now lives in France, had met a bloke who was at school with me.
He was raving about the book.And Dean said,”I know Myles.” Dean was a striker who played with several lads who later turned pro with Crystal Palace.
Authors get this a lot, I’m sure.
My Brazilian pal Alex emailed from Rio to say that a bunch of friends came round and had a kickabout and one of them was the son of the 1970 World Cup captain.
While the others were playing football, Carlos Alberto’s son spent the whole time reading The Professor.Alex said he didn’t realise that the guy understood English so well.
I get emails like this from Darren Bowser, Arsenal fan :
Hi there Myles,
: I bought your brilliant book on Wenger “The Professor” a few months ago and found it a superb read. The beginning was very insightful and the AGM stories too. I see you have now brought out a new version with the double of last year included. Is there any way that fans like me can read that extra entry? I like your book but I don’t want to have to buy it again! Would it possible to to put it on the net at ANR?
My advice to Darren: read the new chapter in a bookshop. It’s selling well in Books Etc, but less well in Waterstones.Cannot explain that.Go into Waterstones and read the last 35 pages for free!
Mostly, you do not know who your readers are.
But occasionally, you do. Last week I mentioned the AGM, where a sixtysomething chap in a sportsjacket was reading the paperback intently just across the aisle from Alexis, Gary Jacob and myself.
Alexis asked the shareholder if he wanted the author to sign it.
The man said,”No thanks-I’d like Wenger to sign it.”
And I said,”He’ll be lucky. Arsene doesn’t endorse products.You need Sven for that!”
Mostly, it has not bothered me what Arsene thought about the book until now. Until this morning when the French reporter said he wouldn’t tell me what Arsene had said to him about it.
Well, I’m philosophical. I don’t think I’ve done too much wrong. Somebody was gonna write a book about Wenger and it turned out to be me.
After all, the book is not an invasion of his private life. It’s all about football and footballers and football matches and the institution of Arsenal FC, where it’s been and where it’s going.
OK, it must be, maybe, a bit weird when somebody writes a book about you.
I’ve written over 300 pages about him, so it’s only fair that ANR offers the manager a right of reply.
Arsene, what do you think of my book? I’d like to know where I stand.
Would you like to review it on ANR?
What have I done wrong? Is The Professor unfair? Too opinionated?
Were you annoyed when I said you should have signed Robbie Keane to replace Anelka? Are you furious that I said you picked the wrong team for the FA Cup Final?
3rd October 2002.
P.S. Viking Stavanger 4 Chelsea 2. Did you see it? What a shambles!