Arsene Wenger: A Tribute to a Football Legend

Arsene Wenger: A Tribute to a Football Legend

Arsene Wenger this week celebrated his 15^th year as the manager of Arsenal Football Club. This is a really enviable achievement when one considers the mere fact that he is already officially recognised as the London’s club longest serving coach in its entire history.

Added to that, the club itself is also celebrating a remarkable 125 years of competitive existence.

Being a football coach is certainly not one of the most secure jobs in the career market. In fact it is one of the most unreliable jobs in terms of tenure and longevity. This is more so in the highly competitive English premier football league. The competition is tough that annually, at least a third of the coaches in the league have to leave their jobs under very unceremonious circumstances.

In spite of all this, Wenger has still not managed to retain his high pressure job but also set a high standard for success like no other coach in its 125 year old history. In so doing, Wenger has set a new yardstick for success at the club both in terms of longevity of tenure and also the magnitude of success.  

He has now surpassed yet another of Arsenal’s coaching legends, Herbert Chapman who until then held both the records for the longest serving and most successful coach in the club’s proud history.

Chapman was the coach of the club between 1925 and 1934.

But like Wenger, Chapman was a visionary who was way ahead of his time. Like Wenger, he was also a peerless revolutionary. It was during his tenure that Arsenal sealed its lofty status as one of England’s elite football clubs.

However, Wenger has not only managed to match up to the legendary Chapman’s lofty standards but has also surpassed them in a spectacular manner. Today, Arsenal is not just one of the most elite clubs in England but it is now an acclaimed football brand in both Europe and the rest of the world.

In Africa for example, Arsenal is now the most supported football club in the entire continent. Under Wenger, the club has grown in the football crazy continent and easily surpassed both Manchester United and Liverpool in mass popular appeal. This is largely due to the fact that inherent in Wenger’s legacy at the Arsenal, is a series of French speaking football stars who helped him garner so much success over the years.

It was Wenger who was brave enough to recruit little known African footballers who have now grown to become household names like George Weah, Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure and Alexander Song.

This enabled Arsenal to have a cross-cultural and linguistical appeal to both Anglo and Franco phone Africa; a feat that other great English clubs like Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United have so far failed to surpass or let alone match.

However, it was also his preference for buying players from his native France that went a long way in helping Arsenal build its large base of fans across Africa. For example, he brought to London such legends as Thierry Henry who very much like Wenger, was a ‘nobody’ when he first arrived in England but grew in stature so much till he became a global soccer icon.

Today, Henry is regarded as Arsenal’s greatest football player ever. Need I mention the likes of Patrick Viera, Nicholas Anelka, Robert Pires, Emmanuel Petit, Sylvain Wiltord and more recently, Samir Nasri?

Outside Africa, Wenger has also helped Arsenal to develop a global appeal. It may not yet be the world’s most famous football brand but Arsenal is now definitely up there with the elite clubs like Manchester United, Barcelona and Real Madrid.

So what have been Arsene’s biggest achievements during his record breaking tenure in North London?

I think his greatest achievement so far is a close tie between his decisions to give the little known Juventus flop  Henry, a chance at the Arsenal or the 49 match unbeaten run by his 2003-4 team now known as the ‘Invincibles’.

In so doing, he also evolved the team’s style of play into one of the most entertaining ones in the world of football. Just like Brazil, Arsenal has now become every football fan’s second favourite team!

The other possible contender could be his overseeing the visionary move from the old iconic Highbury stadium to the new one at the Ashburton Grove. This move was part of the various aspects that Wenger he invested in to ensure that the club not only modernised itself but strategically positioned itself as a global football icon.

And of course, Wenger has led the Gunners to a lot of trophy success! He has won the league title three times and has won the FA cup four times. He has also led the team to its only ever UEFA club Champions League final in 2006.

It is on this highly emotive subject that I end my well-deserved tribute to this great man. It is true that since 2005, Arsenal has not yet one a trophy but this should not be used as a legitimate excuse to undermine the legacy of his spectacular success over the years.

Wenger has paid dearly for putting the long term interests of the club by his financial prudence that has led to Arsenal being regarded as one of the best run clubs in the world today. The club has multiple-ownership and prides itself in a long term self-sustaining operational model. This will ensure that the club not only celebrates its 125 years anniversary but lives long enough to be competitively existent in the year 2136 when it will celebrate its 250 years anniversary!

This is no mean feat especially if one considers that Wenger had not yet proved himself when he landed in London on that fateful day in September 1996. He was such a NOBODY at that time enough to inspire a derogatory headline one of the leading newspapers in England that screamed aloud the big question, ‘ARSENE WHO?’

Well we do now know who Arsene Wenger is today! He is a revolutionary, visionary and peerless football legend! There is only ONE Arsene Wenger!