The Frenchman took the reigns at Arsenal 20 years ago this Thursday and despite leaner times in recent years his impact and influence is undeniable
Happy anniversary then, Arsène. You were the future once. Like most ageing pop culture icons Arsène Wenger has by now pretty much completed the full circuit from youthful innovator, new broom and all-round king of the wild frontier to something that looks a bit like the opposite: stick in the mud, barnacle, emissary from the distant past.
For those who remember Wenger’s unveiling in English football – the brilliant surprise of our own thin white duke, so ludicrously tall and rangy, a man nailed together out of deckchair slats – there is something startling about the tone of his late days at Arsenal. The idea of Wenger as an obstacle to progress, Arsenal’s own dinosaur general is a perfect example of sport’s restlessness, the need constantly to move on and reinvent. These are necessary corrections. The truth as ever lies somewhere in between.
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