Friday 21 March 2014

Arsene Wenger 1000 Games

It was 1996 and the Spice Girls where at their annoying height, Alanis Morissette was still listenable and everybody gave British Beef a wide berth except Agriculture Minister John Gummer who went on TV to feed his daughter a beefburger.
Independence Day was at the cinema and a bespectacled Frenchman turned up at Highbury to a chorus of 'Who's he?'
Just over 17 years later and Arsene Wenger is set to take charge of his 1000th Arsenal game against Chelsea tomorrow trying for win number 574.
It is undeniable that Arsene Wenger has been good for Arsenal even if all his 7 trophy wins came in the first 497 games and since 2006 Arsenal fans have been watching other teams hoovering up the prizes although that has much to do with the financial restrictions Arsene faced as the Emirate Stadium move became more of an albatross for Arsenal than they've let on just as Man City and Chelsea found themselves mega-rich backers.
One of Arsene Wengers finest qualities honed over the years in the Arsenal dugout is his special ability to see the throw in that went against Arsenal 100 yards away down by the corner flag but completely miss any offence by an Arsenal player feet away from him.
He does seem to have had a bit of a running feud with Jose Mourinho, once saying of the miserable faced Chelsea manager after he called Arsene a voyeur: 'When you give success to stupid people, it makes them more stupid'.
The trophies may have dried up of late and Arsenal fans may get frustrated at having the world's 34th richest person on the board but Arsene Wenger refusing to sign big names but the last 17 years have been entertaining and with Arsenal having never finished less than 4th during his tenure and after the heady early years of doubles and invincibles, as Arsene himself once said, 'Once you have eaten caviar, it's difficult to return to sausages'.

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