WINNING THE MIND GAME
By a m a r pat e l
|
p h oto g r a p h y by s a m b a r k e r
Despite his calm demeanour and considerable success, Arsenal football club manager Arsene Wenger remains a complex figure, infatuated by ‘the beautiful game’ and uncompromising in his beliefs
IT’s May 2008 and Arsenal FC, one of the most prestigious and successful clubs in the history of English football, is destined to finish a campaign without silverware for a third straight season. Many devout fans of the club – those who so vociferously proclaimed ‘in Arsène we trust’ in previous years – have begun to question the wisdom of their manager’s youth-over-experience policy. Could ‘the miracle worker’, as former vice-chairman David Dein once proclaimed him, have lost his touch? The Roman poet Horace once wrote: ‘Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.’ Speaking with Arsène Wenger about his life you soon begin to believe that his values, attitude and intellect can weather any storm. Even perched on the edge of an armchair in his office in Arsenal’s training complex in Colney, Hertfordshire, he exudes intelligence and calm. Always measured, cerebral and studious, he instructs me much as he would a young talent: ‘I try to take pressure in a positive way. It pushes me to excellence. Pressure has helped me to be rigorous, to push myself as far as I can go. To resist disappointments and to insist on your own way of playing, requires you to remain passionate and truly believe that what you are doing is right.’ To know the man, you have to know the upbringing of this 58-year-old Alsace native. Indeed, it was the ceaseless football chatter and daily drunken antics witnessed in his parents’ Duttlenheim pub restaurant, La Croix D’Or – also the headquarters of the village team in which Wenger first played – that implanted a permanent passion for football in his brain, triggered his dislike for alcohol (Wenger is teetotal) and prompted his strict advocacy of health and fitness. ‘I grew up in that pub with the idea that football is the most important thing in life,’ he says. ‘You see, the problem with being a sportsman is that you must rely on your body. You need that body to be as perfect as possible. Soon, you start to think about how you practise, the way you eat and how much you sleep.’ The young Arsène Wenger was a fairly unremarkable player (although a promising strategist and leader) who, after about 10 years on various local teams, ended up at Racing Club de Strasbourg in 1978, where he was groomed as a coach by his mentor Max Hild. Did his playing days help him to become a better manager? ‘It can be
‘Pressure has helped me to be rigorous, to push myself as far as I can go’ advantageous for a good manager to have been a good player,’ he admits. ‘You know what is required at the top level and you get an earlier chance – but it’s not enough. This is a job that requires passion, physical and psychological stamina, a desire to help others, complete and total dedication and [a readiness to] sacrifice your life.’ Wenger worked at Strasbourg and AS Cannes before AS Nancy-Lorraine offered him his big chance in the manager’s seat. With player diets becoming increasingly important to him, he not only lectured his team on eating correctly, but also invited their wives to the training ground to learn how to cook for an athlete. He impressed enough at Nancy to be offered the job as coach of AS Monaco FC in 1987. Within a year Monaco had scooped the French championship, with Wenger collecting the Manager of the Year award. Wenger was developing a reputation as a manager worth playing for, attracting highcalibre players such as future French World Cup winner Youri Djorkaeff, future FIFA World Player of the Year George Weah and future England manager Glenn Hoddle. But despite this success, Wenger is quick to question his maturity at the time, admitting that anger and impatience were his two worst demons. It was in his next role as manager of Japanese team Nagoya Grampus Eight that he achieved much-needed balance. During an 18-month stint at the club where he took it from the bottom three to runners-up position in the J-League while capturing both the Super Cup and the Emperor’s Cup, it was his philosophical cache that grew most. ‘When I go somewhere I try to understand the culture,’ he begins, edging forward on his seat. ‘Japan changed my life as I was a long way from home. Suddenly you have to take everything into perspective: family, friends, all are so distant. You’re on your own. There’s no escape from your problems. That period taught me about control and helped me to realise what is important.
Lighting the way: Arsène Wenger stands defiant inside Arsenal FC’s high-tech indoor training and fitness centre
‘The fascinating thing about Japan is the mixture of traditionalist attitude and modern way of life. Also, it’s interesting how Japanese society can cultivate respect at that very high level and still perform. That’s not the impression I get in Europe. You feel that to be successful you need to be disrespectful. A lot of values have been replaced by moneymaking and the need to be successful at any cost, particularly through the media. That’s the idea that appeals to youngsters today. ‘Another thing about Asian culture is they don’t show their emotions – quite the opposite of the Mediterranean. You can destroy your life or someone else’s in a second if you explode, so in Japan I learned much about mastering control.’ Wenger even wrote a book called Shosha No Esprit for the Japanese market. In it >>
LEXUS MAGAZINE 39