It’s over. Well nearly.
After 7,872 days in charge at Arsenal, Arsene Wenger has confirmed that he will leave the club this summer.
It’s a momentous day in the history of our great club and one that naturally puts us in a reflective mood.
So indulge us as we once again take a trip down memory lane.
Arsene. Thank you. Thank you for all that you have done for Arsenal Football Club.
1. Vieira Signs
Wenger’s fingerprints were all over Vieira’s signing even though it was pushed through five weeks before his own arrival.
Paddy quickly became the fulcrum of the Gunners midfield making 406 appearances in nine years and winning three Premier League titles and four FA Cups.
2. The 97/98 Double
Arsenal were 12 points behind reigning champions Manchester United at the end of February, before a winning streak of nine matches ensured we won the championship with a 4–0 win over Everton on 3 May 1998.
“And it’s Tony Adams put through by Steve Bould…would you believe it? That sums it all up!”
Well almost. We then went and beat Newcastle 2-0 to secure a first Double since 1971.
3. The French Connection
Wenger’s unrivalled knowledge of up and coming French talent proved rather useful in the early years.
First Anelka was signed, promoted and sold for a £21.5 million profit, then the boss snaffled World Cup winner Thierry Henry, then struggling at Juventus, and forged a legend.
4. Arson Wenger?
Out with the Mars bars, in with broccoli. That was step one. Step two was using £10 million from the sale of Anelka to create a state of the art training facility, opened in 1999, suitable for attracting and honing the skills of world class athletes. Nobody ever found out who burnt down the ramshackle buildings that the Gunners had been using on UCL’s land…
5. Double, Double, Double…
10 months after stealing Sol Campbell on a free from Sp*rs, the Arsenal secured their third Double. After a tight fight at the top we cruised to victory, scoring in every game, remaining unbeaten away, finishing the season with 13 successive wins and clinching the title at Old Trafford in our penultimate game.
Four days previously, the FA Cup had been sealed in Cardiff.
Pires, Ljungberg, Bergkamp, Wiltord, Kanu, Henry, the list goes on…
6. The Battle Of Old Trafford
A red card for Vieira, a last-gasp penalty miss by Ruud van Nistelrooy, Martin Keown’s reaction, handbags everywhere…and then fines and bans.
This 0-0 against Fergie’s United had everything…but goals. Having choked in the title race the season before, the single point galvanised the Gunners and formed the bedrock of our race to the title.
7. Fergie Mind Games
Relations thawed over the years but at the height of Arsenal’s rivalry with Manchester United the two managers went at each other like rutting stags.
“Everyone thinks they have the prettiest wife at home,” said Wenger in response to Ferguson’s 2002 claim that United had been the best side in the Premier League after Christmas despite Arsenal being crowned champions. The best of the rest can be read here.
It’s a mark of respect that Wenger played along at all. Whenever Jose Mourinho’s name is brought up by the press, the Frenchman’s eyes squint and he tries to change the subject.
Break his face Jose? You’re having a laugh.
8. Invincible
Very few managers have suggested that their team can go unbeaten. Fewer still have delivered on the ambition.
We don’t really need to write much here…The Gunners were simply awesome in 2003/04, winning 26 games and drawing 12 on the way to a 90-point haul. Oh…and did we mention we won the league at White Hart Lane? Again.
9. Forty-Nine, Forty-Nine, Undefeated
The unbeaten run stretched into a third season as the Gunners started the 04/05 campaign in swaggering style. The gung-ho 5-3 victory over Middlesbrough on 22 August 2004 was a particular highlight as Wenger’s men battled back from 3-1 down to equal Nottingham Forest’s all-time League record sequence.
It took Wayne Rooney’s cheating in October’s Battle of the Buffet to finally end the most remarkable undefeated stretch in English football. Worth singing about, if you ask us.
10. Shootout In Cardiff
Patrick Vieira’s parting gift – a successful spot-kick to beat United on penalties after a turgid 120 minutes in Cardiff – proved to be a real line in the sand.
The Frenchman left for Juventus, the break-up of the Invincibles started in earnest and a trophy drought began. All this at a time when Roman Abramovich was reshaping the financial landscape of the transfer market.
11. Pain in Paris
It may have ended in heartbreak, but the run to the Champions League final in 2006, including wins over Juventus and Real Madrid and THAT Lehmann penalty save against Villarreal, will live long in the memory.
On a soaking wet night in the French capital, Frank Rijkaard’s Barcelona proved a hurdle too far. Down to ten men in the early stages, the Gunners put up a brave fight and even took the lead thanks to Sol Campbell’s thunderous header. Thierry Henry had a chance to double the lead (“harder Thierry, hit it harder!!!”), before Samuel Eto’o and Juliano Belletti broke our hearts.
Arsene’s quest for a European trophy goes on. There’s one last chance though.
12. A New Home
Nobody enjoyed saying goodbye to Highbury, however, with no room to expand capacity the move to a new stadium was inevitable. Pushing for change was far from a one-man job, but with Wenger committing his future to the club when suitors circled he provided a level of stability and forged squads that consistently competed for a top-four finish even without the financial muscle of big-spending rivals.
13. Project Youth
The idea was brave. Sell ageing stars for big money, invest in young talent from abroad and develop a football philosophy that permeates every level of the Academy and forges a newfound club spirit.
The first two thirds of the 2007/08 campaign hinted it might just work, only for inexperience, mental fragility and injuries to cost the club dear time and time again. There was also the issue of holding onto top quality players with the modern game awash with tempting big money contracts. The exits of Fabregas, Nasri and Van Persie were particularly grating, as was the League Cup final defeat to Birmingham.
14. Beating Barca
For one glorious night in February 2011 it wasn’t about winning the Champions League, it was about beating the world’s best side on home turf.
1-0 down at half time to Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona it looked an unlikely feat. Then came two goals in five beautifully frantic five minutes. First Van Persie scored at Victor Valdes’ near post to level things up. Then, with the game ticked towards 90 minutes, Wilshere, Fabregas and Nasri combined on the break for ‘Aaaaaaaaarshavin’ to net the winner. Has there ever been a bigger roar at the Emirates?
Naturally, we got spanked in the second leg.
15. Return Of The King
Arsenal’s 125th anniversary season needed a pick-me-up after the hammering at Old Trafford and it came in the form of Henry’s surprise return. Just days after having a statue unveiled, the club’s record scorer stepped off the bench against Leeds to do what he had done so many times before…find the net with a cushioned right foot effort to the far post.
The Emirates exploded. There were tears of joy, there was hysterical laughter, and there was Henry.
Listen to a mini-documentary about that goal here.
16. THAT Goal VS Norwich
If there’s one goal that sums up peak Wenger-ball, it’s Wilshere’s 18th minutes strike in the 4-1 win over Norwich in 2013.
Words don’t do it justice, so here’s the video…
17. King Of The One-Liner
Facing the press on a week-by-week basis for 20 years can’t have been easy, particularly during the nine years without a trophy, but for the most part Wenger has indulged Fleet Street with a smile on his face.
“I don’t kick dressing room doors or the cat or even football journalists,” he once said.
Quizzed on everything from Bob Marley and David Bowie to Brexit and beyond, the boss always seems to have an answer.
18. To Hull And Back
Finally, a trophy! But bloody hell, didn’t we go about it in the most Arsenal way possible. After a horribly tense shootout victory over Wigan in the semi-final, the Gunners rocked up for the final with Hull as favourites…and then promptly went two nil down inside ten minutes.
Thankfully, while the football world collectively guffawed at our ineptitude Santi Cazorla kept his cool and reduced the deficit with a fantastic free-kick. Laurent Koscielny’s equaliser set up extra-time before Aaron Ramsey wrote his name into the Arsenal annals with his late winner. The relief was palpable.
19. Le Prof In Full Flow…
It’s not often the boss gives in-depth interviews, but when he does (as he did with L’Equipe last year) you’re reminded why he’s so respected…
“I don’t want the will to educate to be opposed by the will to win. That makes the educator sound like an idiot. Any manager’s approach must be to educate. One of the beauties of our job is the power to influence the course of a man’s life in a positive way. You and me have been lucky enough to meet people who believed in us and led us forward. The streets are full of talented people but who didn’t have the luck of finding someone who placed their faith in them. I can be the one that facilitates life, that give an opportunity.”
20. A Happy Hunting Ground
After the drought, more success at Wembley! Two further FA Cup final victories, against Villa and Chelsea, ensure Arsene leaves Arsenal as the most decorated club in the competition’s prestigious history.
With seven trophies to his name, he’s also the competition’s most successful manager. Not bad for a lad who grew up in a pub in Alsace, France.
Will there be one last piece of silverware? We’ll find out in the next few weeks…
I get this almost certainly was not Wenger’s decision to resign but I’m really glad that it happened now and not in the middle of the summer as it allows the fans to come together and rightly celebrate the man. Hopefully the players also recognize how much they owe him and can put in the performances he deserves until year end.
Thank you Arsene, you have done the right thing and I strongly believe the timing of this announcement will prove the difference between struggling against Athletico and actually, maybe, beating them instead. Although I have been quite vocal at times in calling for you to move on and for calling of boycotting match days, we were privileged to have you as our manager, particularly the first 10 years where we were quite simply outstanding. And to add that although I did take the piss, I never verbally abused the great man, I have too much respect for him to stoop… Read more »
Glad to see this happen. Glad he has a chance to retire with fans getting behind him one last time. Should have probably happened last year with the FA Cup win… but don’t see this as a sad day. See it as a day that we can celebrate the achievements of a great manager and a time to turn the page to a new era of greatness at Arsenal
Legend.
it would be so fitting for him to win his first European trophy in his last game in charge.
Of course it had to happen, but the overriding feeling is one of sadness for me. What he has done for the club over the past 22 years is simply incredible, he doesn’t deserve one ounce of the vitriol that has been directed at him.
There truly is only one Arsène Wenger.
Had Arsene left immediately after we moved into the Emirates.. I highly doubt it that we would have got out of that financial mess that we were finding ourselves in with Kroenke on top. We could have fallen apart and become a mid table team with all that Arab and Russian money pouring into the PL. He held us together and he got us out of it and back into a healthy position. We owe our respect and gratitude to him for that. Never ever forget what someone has done for you. An important quality to have as a human… Read more »
I know that this was probably not Wenger’s decision to leave, but it could yet galvanise a squad that has certainly underachieved to win 3 more games and send him off with an elusive European title. It will give the home fans a proper chance to say farewell and give him the warm send-off he most certainly deserves. Personally, along with the doubles and Invincibles, the fact that he managed to keep the club in the team 4 in a period of extreme austerity post-Emirates Stadium is extremely commendable. It’s something I will never forget. I can’t think of any… Read more »
This is the most bittersweet thing ever
Merci Arsene. Our love will be with you for ever.
What a great list!!!
What’s everyone’s favourite all time Wenger 11? Here’s mine (I tinkered a little with some positions):
Lehmann
Lauren Campbell Adams Ca$hley
Vieira Silva
Freddie Bergkamp Pires
Henry
Bench: Seamen, Sagna, Kos, Santi, Özil, Cesc, RVP
I’m sure I’m forgetting some great players too!
I really think the timing of this announcement will help propel us past Madrid in the Europa. COYG! You owe it to Wenger to give it everything and get him a proper send off.
I read somewhere that he’s won 3.9% of all the top division titles and fa cups ever awarded. An incredible stat
This is really going to be a tough call.
Arsene has been Arsenal and vice versa.
What/who do you replace Arsenal with?
My little heart is breaking. I’m crying like a big arsed baby.
I understand that but the club has to come first over any manager. AW was without doubt an incredible manager, David Dein pulled off a massive coup by bringing him in and took the club on further.
My heart would have been breaking if we finished 6th or lower next season because the damage to our club would have been enormous.
I wanted him out the last couple of years too. But what some “fans” have been writing especially over at the pathetic le-grove makes me ashamed to be an Arsenal fan.
You got what you wanted, what’s wrong with now sitting back and THANKING the guy? As I said I wanted him out too, but couldn’t help but cry when I read the news this morning. I really hope he goes to PSG and wins the Champions League in the next few years!
Fucking amazing post……..thanks for this…..glad I am a patreon!……..lets send this legend out on a high……UEFA cup please!
90% percent of the somewhat meaningful events occured at least a decade ago. Good tules those were, though.
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
The rest of the poem is too dark for the occasion, but Wenger guided the Arsenal ship for 22 years and now his voyage is closed and done. Thank you Captain.
Victoria Concordia Crescit.
“And it’s Tony Adams put through by Steve Bould…would you believe it? That sums it all up!”
Thank you Arsene. x
A sad day……but 100% the right decision, for both the club & Arsene…. and the timing is perfect. We now get to give him the send off he deserves & the Board get more time to plan for a new manager….And if the players can’t raise themselves now for the Europa semi & final then they will have made some decisions very well for the new manager.
Thank you Arsene truly for everything.
Very easy even.
He tried to marry the competitive/physical attributes and directness of the core British game with the flair and invention of the French/Continental style. He kept it free form as much as possible allowing the individual to express himself in the game with less fixed rules. And when it came together it was simply sublime. When he first came over he benefited from the relative xenophobia of the league and a monopoly on a crop of players (mainly) from France which coincided with a golden generation. But he allowed players to express themselves and the switch of Henry from wing (at… Read more »
Wenger will be missed. For all those calling for his head the past 5-6 years, be prepared for 10th place trophy
The man himself will be missed but we have been in slow decline for a long time, fighting to get in to the top 4 on many occasions. If he had stayed on, I think there is a significant chance we would have seen 6th or lower next season which would be very damaging for the club in trying to bring in top/ world class players we need and losing the fan base further. I would like either Ancelotti with Arteta, then Arteta maybe take the reins after about 4/5 years or my dream appointment would be Luis Enrique. We… Read more »
APundits and bloggers and popular opinion are not always right …. instant reactions and lack of proper perspective and impatience lead to consequences which may turn out be worse than what was hoped for ….one person to emerge with credit in all this is Arsene Wenger … he refused to pander to the pundits and popular instant opinions , did things his own way and his unique contribution to Arsenal’s success will always remain …. One of the greatest football managers , who stands out with very few others as one made from a different mould … Arsenal will now… Read more »
I agree with some of your sentiment.
I would love to see AW manage the French national team. IMO he stands a better chance of greater success than what he has achieved at Arsenal by taking over the National team after the world cup.
IMO as a club manager I think he will continue to struggle.
You missed the record i think will last longest. Scoring in consecutive league games 53 or 54? That I think was a stunning record to take.