Has Wenger sold his soul with World Cup proposals?
- Updated: 21 Oct 2021 10:51 CDT
- 7 min read
Arsene Wenger made an indelible approach on the English game as Arsenal manager and although they spiralled into mediocrity in the latter stage of his tenure, the failure of anyone to come close to emulating his achievements marks him out as a managerial giant in Premier League terms.
Other than Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho he is probably the best manager to have plied his trade in the modern Premier League. His pioneering ideas for English football when he arrived from Japan in 1996 revolutionised the game.
Wenger introduced changes in diet which saw every other club have to eventually follow suit to ensure their conditioning matched up to the Gunners’. He built a global scouting network that helped usher in a worldwide influx of talent to the Premier League, in his case often bought for peanuts and then sold on for big money.
He had footballing ideals in terms of how the game should be played and would not yield in terms of how he believed it should be done.
But more than that, what Wenger built unquestionably established an identity during his tenure as Arsenal boss as a man of principle.
Principled in the way he conducted his affairs and his professionalism. Principled in the fact he refused to bow to pressure to splash cash in the transfer market – even when the team badly needed something to help put them over the top – if it in any way jeopardised the financial stability and future of the club.
It would be more than fair to say that his principledness bordered on obtuse stubbornness at times, but it could never be argued that the man did not hold true to what he believed was best for his team or the game as a whole.