The Spurs directors are obsessed with Arsenal, so they will be dismayed by the news that Arsene Wenger has extended his contract by three years.
Spurs have had eight managers since Wenger arrived at Arsenal in 1996.
It would have been nine if Juande Ramos of Sevilla had not turned them down. And their next manager after Martin Jol will not be there in 2011. I’ll bet my house on that !
Naturally, the mainstream media treat Arsene’s new contract as if it’s big news. But it’s hardly news to me. It’s always convenient to sign his contract in an international break and this has been talked about for months.
I’ve never mentioned it on ANR because I never thought he would go. You don’t sign loads of 16-year old footballers from all round the world and then walk out.
He is 58 next month and he is in good shape and he has a masterplan and there is no other club where he would have the power he has at Arsenal. He wants to work in his own way without interference. He doesn’t want an owner who would buy him Shevchenko and Ballack. He doesn’t want to be at a club where legendary former players like Beckenbauer, Hoeness and Rummenigge have a big input into policy.
At Colney, it’s Arsene FC. Everybody there owes their career to him and nobody contradicts him. It’s a one-man show and it’s been very successful in terms of trophies, crowds, and stylish football which changed the Arsenal brand forever. Arsene has played the beautiful game while balancing the books as no other coach in the world could have done.
I’m reminded of another international break way back in 2001.
Arsene knew I was writing The Professor and he knew from my questions at press conferences what angles I was interested in. But he didn’t know what was in my book, which was about to be published. I wasn’t worried about whether he would like the book or not. If he didn’t like it, he’d have to lump it. If I worried about whether he would like it, I wouldn’t be able to write an honest book.
My job was to say what I had to say as honestly and readably as possible. Privately, I felt that if I was a foreign manager, and I went to work in another country, and somebody wrote a book like this about me, I’d be quite chuffed. And I’d be pleased that the writer had tried so hard to understand what I was trying to do, how I wanted the game to be played, and described my players, and the evolution of my team, in such sympathetic detail, while, inevitably, pointing out some of my mistakes.
So one morning in 2001, about 11 or 11.30, I called Arsene on his mobile. It was an international week but I thought he would be at the training ground. I can still recall part of that conversation from six years ago.
I told him that The Professor was coming out and that as soon as I got a copy I’d send it to him. I could hear a little girl talking and laughing in the background and I felt a bit guilty about calling him at home.
“The book basically says that Arsenal is a very good football club but not perfect, that David Dein is a very good football executive but not perfect, and that you are a very good manager but not perfect.”
“Exactly, ” said Arsene.