Review
Time Out
Shoot
Book Description
Product Description
From the Publisher
Wenger also taught Arsenal how to win with style. He is a star-maker who identifies talent and nurtures it. By combining so many athletic footballers, and playing without a centre forward, he re-invented the beautiful game and lit up the Premiership, claiming seven trophies in nine seasons.With a fraction of Manchester United's budget, Wenger took titles off Sir Alex Ferguson in 1998, 2002 and 2004. But his teams have struggled in the Champions League and those European failures are analysed in detail here.Domestically, Arsenal raised the bar with 49 games unbeaten in 2004, but found themselves facing a new rival. Chelsea, suddenly the richest club in the world, romped away with the title in 2005.
The Professor tells us who Arsene Wenger is and what he believes in. With Arsenal's new Emirates Stadium not opening until 2006, the French maestro now faces two fascinating challenges. How will he compete with the billionaire's Chelsea? And can Arsenal improve in the Champions League ?
From the Author
Just as I tried hard to understand what George Graham did with his team, and why he became the character he became, so I tried, in this book, to understand the super-ambitious Wenger's desire to make Arsenal the biggest club in the world by playing the most entertaining football in the world in the best stadium in England, the Emirates Stadium, which will open in 2006.
From the Back Cover
The Professor describes Arsene Wenger's nine seasons in England and analyses Arsenal's disappointing results in Europe.
Idealistic, passionate and scientific, Arsene Wenger led the modernisation of English football - he opened the door for foreign coaches like Houllier, Eriksson, Ranieri and Mourinho. A star-maker who identifies and nurtures talent, Wenger taught boring Arsenal how to win with style. By combining so many athletic footballers, and playing without a centre forward, he re-invented the beautiful game and lit up the Premiership, claiming seven trophies in nine seasons.
With a fraction of Manchester United;s budget, Wenger took titles off Sir Alex Ferguson in 1998, 2002 and 2004. Arsenal's 2004 title was achieved with an unbeaten Premiership season. However, his teams have struggled in the Champions League, and new rivals Chelsea, suddenly the richest club in the world, romped away with the Premiership title in 2005.
Tracking the highs and lows of his career, The Professor explains who Arsene Wenger is and what he believes in. Now, with Arsenal's new Emirates Stadium set to open 2006, the French maestro faces two fascinating challenges: How will he compete with the billionaire's Chelsea? And can Arsenal improve in the Champions League?
About the Author
Excerpted from The Professor: Arsene Wenger at Arsenal by Myles Palmer. Copyright © 2005. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
ARSENAL were up against last year's finalists, Valencia, with the first leg at Highbury. This was knockout football, not a mini-league. Away goals would count double if aggregate scores were level, so a clean sheet would be vital. In Europe, as in the Premiership, Wenger had proved to be an attacking coach but a conservative tactician, although at times he was, perhaps, not conservative enough.
Early on in the game, when Pires placed a corner to the far post, Vieira headed against the bar from two yards - a bad miss. After half an hour Arsenal seemed to have run out of ideas. Seaman had to save with his foot after the giant John Carew went round him, and then, on 40 minutes, Mendieta crossed into the box and the ball squirted out to centre-back Ayala, who volleyed expertly past Seaman. Valencia were 1-0 up at half-time. Would this be Arsenal's first Champions League defeat at Highbury? Dutch referee Dick Jol, one of Europe's very best, was sensibly letting quite a lot go and was guilty of no very bad decisions, but he was having one of those watch-me-I'm-no-homer nights, giving every fifty-fifty decision to Valencia.
For the second half Wenger switched to 4-3-3, bringing on Wiltord for Ljungberg, and Arsenal raised the tempo. Vieira powered past Aimar and Mendieta and fed Wiltord on the left; he cut the ball back to Kanu, whose touch failed. The ball went loose towards Pires, who backheeled neatly to Henry, who banged it in from ten yards for 1-1. Then Vieira, fouled in midfield by Angloma, took a quick, short free-kick to Kanu, Parlour burst on to the ball, skipped sharply beyond Kanu's marker, the huge Pellegrino, with a terrific change of pace and slammed a 27-yard thunderbolt high into the net. Highbury went wild with delight. Two goals in 107 seconds had the old East Stand rocking on its foundations, a slightly alarming new experience for this reporter, who had sat there in an apparently solid structure through dozens of jump-to-your-feet goals.
Five minutes after Parlour's cannonball, Vieira released Henry and a semi-final place looked certain if he could just slip the ball past Canizares's legs, but he swerved round the keeper, had to slow down, and Angloma just reached the ball first. Still, there was no reply from Valencia and this was undoubtedly Wenger's most exciting Champions League win, a quantum leap forward, although the score had left the tie very finely balanced indeed.
Arsenal had failed to support their strikers in the first half, as the manager had said they should, but in the second, when they played high-energy football, pressurising ferociously, it had worked because that is their most effective way of playing. They cannot play cagey cat-and-mouse football like Bayern Munich. Their game is based on speed and energy, skill and momentum, so they are the kings of coming-at-you football but the dunces of wait-and-see football.
Robert Pires was impressed by the support that night, as he told Alex Hayes of the Independent. `What a racket! I've never heard anything like it. The Arsenal fans never cease to amaze me. It's wonderful to play for a club where every man, woman and child screams for you at the top of their lungs.' Last season Pires had been captain of Marseilles, a club with serious administrative problems and a disappointed, hostile crowd, so he was definitely enjoying happier times. `It's an unbelievable sensation to be standing on the pitch when the whole crowd erupts,' he continued. `When Ray scored the winner on Wednesday, I thought Highbury was going to collapse. As a Frenchman, I had never experienced that kind of support. That's why I sometimes stand back and just look around me. The intensity is such that I often think the fans are about to pour on to the pitch.'
