Wenger's Autobiography

[Mac76]

This arrived at my house yesterday and I started reading it last night.

Right at the start this is a guy who's whole life is football, and that's all it is - he makes no bones about it and it's kind of refreshing for it.

am looking forwrd to reading through over the week week or two.

Meanwhile i saw his interview last night.

he came across as relaxed and very likeable, but again with a narrow football-orientated view which doesn't go beyond how the game is played - when asked about football's direction in the next ten years he didn't talk about money or ownership or anything he just talked about how the style of play was changing

and he wouldn't name his dream Arsenal 5-a-side because he said he had far too many good players to choose from (those were the days)

and when asked about losing out to Leicester in the PL, he pointed out that Spuds went into complete freefall in the last part of that season :lol:

[Niall_Quinn]

I want this book, but I'm going to wait for a while to see if the price comes down. Then I'll haggle with the shopkeeper until he throws me out.

[Mac76]

part of me thought i should wait and get it given to me for Christmas, but was just too keen to read it, plus there was a special offer if you also signed up for the talk

[Marc Overmars]

Will make a start on it soon, looking forward to reading it. Hope he goes into detail about the post-Emirates era.

[GP]

Wenger was on his way to the book store when he realised he didn't have any books

[Niall_Quinn]

I've ordered it.

:getcoat:

In audiobook format for £0.00 as part of the trial! Free transfer! Good business, little bit. Little bit sharpness was all that was needed. Just need to find an app or something to listen to it.

Also, Denilson's book can play there.

[Niall_Quinn]

I'm in! 6 hours 41 mins of Wenger.

:popcorn:

[Ollie the Optimist]

Pre ordered it ages ago but forgot to ammend my address when i moved so its waiting at my parents.

Who i now can’t visit because of lockdown restrictions :lol:


I was reading an article about the book in one of the newspapers and it complained that Wenger didn’t talk much about Mourinho. I’m going to assume its because mourinho means nothing to Wenger and only mourinho would get upset about not being in the book!

[GP]

I like the bit about Tony Pulis' mum

[Letters]

Think I'll wait for Santa to get me it, I already have a big backlog of books - I used to read when I commuted and haven't made enough time for doing so while at home, trying to get back into reading.
Really looking forward to this. Whatever you think about his later years, there's no doubt he is one of the most influential figures in Arsenal's modern history.
And in the first half of his time with us he took us to places I never thought I'd see an Arsenal side go.
Really interested to read his take on the Emirates era.

Was tempted to go to his interview at the Palladium on Monday but decided not to in the end.

[Niall_Quinn]

He has a really thick French accent when reading, much more pronounced than I remember when he'd be speaking on TV. It's quite distracting. I'm waiting for him to say minkey. But so far it's all pretty much what I expected tbh. Hope it picks up. I want to hear how he poisoned the lasagne.

[dostoy]

Arsehole W h i n g e r is going to be on the Gayham Norton show tonight.

[Letters]

loooool! You said Arsehole instead of Arsene.
And "Gayham" instead of "Graham", because Graham Norton is gay!
:haha:
Brilliant.
:haha:



:rolleyes:

[Niall_Quinn]

FFS, don't say anything bad about Wenger :doh:

Don't you know who's moderating this place?

Not that he's on a hair trigger to counter each and every criticism, like that tin foil hat guy claimed on another thread.

What you see here is just coincidence.

[dostoy]

How did you find talking with Gayham, Arsehole, I mean Arsene ?

[Letters]

How did you find talking with Gayham, Arsehole, I mean Arsene ?

:haha:

You said "Gayham" and "Arsehole" again.

:haha:

Brilliant.


:coffee:

[Letters]

Not that he's on a hair trigger to counter each and every criticism.
What criticism?
It was a "joke" - about two people's names - a joke worthy of a 5 year old, tops.
It's hardly Oscar Wilde.

[dostoy]

What criticism?
It was a "joke" - about two people's names - a joke worthy of a 5 year old, tops.
It's hardly Oscar Wilde.

Are you better than the rest of us ?

[Niall_Quinn]

What criticism?
It was a "joke" - about two people's names - a joke worthy of a 5 year old, tops.
It's hardly Oscar Wilde.

You do it to yourself.

[Letters]

Are you better than the rest of us ?

No, just you ;)

[Letters]

You do it to yourself.

That's 8 years of marriage for you.
Niall_Quim looool!

[Niall_Quinn]

Oh look - he said quim.

Ha ha.

Brilliant.

[Letters]

Exactly :shrug:

[Niall_Quinn]

No, just you ;)

No, given the evidence of the last few days, that's highly unlikely, don't you think (not a literal question, that last bit)? Are you sure this isn't another false positive?

[Niall_Quinn]

Exactly :shrug:

"All things truly wicked start from innocence." -- Ernest Hemingway

[dostoy]

No, just you ;)

That explains the air of arrogance you have on here and not just with me.

You are no better than anyone.

[Niall_Quinn]

That explains the air of arrogance you have on here and not just with me.

You are no better than anyone.

I'm going to ignore him. Good advice given to me by another poster.

[Letters]

"All things truly wicked start from innocence." -- Ernest Hemingway

“A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men” - Willy Wonka

[Marc Overmars]

Nice to see Arsene again doing all these appearances and looking much happier.

Read the first few chapters of his book and he is indeed little bit obsessed with football and not in a healthy way I imagine.

It was a shame how sour things turned towards the end but he is a great man, no doubt about that.

[Marc Overmars]

Finished the book. It’s actually quite boring in that I don’t think there’s really much in there we didn’t already know. He doesn’t go into much detail about anyone or anything specific, it is more just about the coaching and philosophical side of things. I guess that’s not surprising given he wasn’t the type of character to air any dirty laundry in public and always kept things classy.

Sounds like the 2006-2013 period while being the most difficult gave him the most satisfaction. As it was essential we qualified for the CL to pay off the stadium debt.

[Niall_Quinn]

Gave up on the audiobook. His accent is just so thick when he's reading. I suspected I didn't miss anything.

[Mac76]

i know what you mean, I found the early stuff dull but once he gets to Monaco it starts to get better.

i already pretty much knew he didn't dish dirt or anything and once you get used to it it's quite refreshing - he mentions the whole Marseilles corruption thing but I can imagine the lawyers were quick to stop him going too far, even if he'd wanted to

am just about to start on the Arsenal stuff, looking forward to it now i've got the measure of the book

[Letters]

Sounds like the 2006-2013 period while being the most difficult gave him the most satisfaction. As it was essential we qualified for the CL to pay off the stadium debt.
Interesting. And I don't think that achievement should be dismissed. In an era where money was tight and other clubs were being backed by billionaires (as in, ones who actually want to invest in the club rather than leech off it) I think he did pretty well to keep us up there at times. Just feel like the game moved on without him though and in the end we were just seeing the same mistakes repeated over and over again.
Why did he stay after that last FA Cup? :doh:

[Letters]

He's 71 today apparently

:bow:

[Letters]

https://i.ibb.co/wC3hXPN/3-FB7-A14-F-E45-B-49-EC-B041-09-F2-FF4330-F4.jpg

:loveblush:

[dostoy]

He's 71 today apparently

:bow:

He was senile in his mid sixties.

[Letters]

Look at some Cripps threads if you want to know how to troll.
You are hopeless at it.

[GP]

He's 71 today apparently

:bow:

And still sharp as a tack.

Great man.

[Niall_Quinn]

Look at some Cripps threads if you want to know how to troll.
You are hopeless at it.

Why don't you teach him the basics?

[Letters]

And still sharp as a tack.

Great man.

:gp:

[Niall_Quinn]

Reality check. Wenger's book is so boring.

He's not a great man. He WAS a great man. Then he became a self absorbed git who destroyed his legacy and plunged the club into mediocrity. He led a revolution in football, that can never be taken away from him. He managed a team that played some of the best football you will ever see. That can never be taken away from him.

Then he did the exact opposite. He got left behind, couldn't accept it, and ended up managing a team that plays some of the most boring football you will ever see.

It's fair to thank him for the good things he did. It's fair to slaughter him for how out of touch he was by the end.

At least Clough was an alchie. Wenger was stone cold sober when he ruined his legacy.

[Niall_Quinn]

:gp:

That's my dad, that is!

[Letters]

He led a revolution in football, that can never be taken away from him. He managed a team that played some of the best football you will ever see. That can never be taken away from him.
But by God you’ll try :lol:

[Niall_Quinn]

But by God you’ll try :lol:

Which part of reality are you denying this time?

Look. Your dad did good, then he fucked up. That's just the way it is.

[Letters]

Which part of reality are you denying this time?

Stop breaking my ironyometers :angry:

[dostoy]

Look at some Cripps threads if you want to know how to troll.
You are hopeless at it.

It still gets under your skin though.

As NQ says, he was a very good manager, then RA came to Chelsea in about 2003 and w h i n g e r was never the same.

For the last few years he was at Arsenal, he was awful.

Fuck all cups mean nothing.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Just finished his book and i was quite disappointed with it.

It’s very short and skims over his life at arsenal in about 100 pages with no real details. It gives an interesting insight into him as person & what drives him but then again, most of that we already knew.

He could have written several books just on the time at arsenal and i really wish he had gone into more details. The unbeaten season is covered in about 4 pages!

I suspect he didnt want to write about what happened towards the end in order not to cause conflict with the club etc but this book was a massive let down imo

[Mac76]

Just finished his book and i was quite disappointed with it.

It’s very short and skims over his life at arsenal in about 100 pages with no real details. It gives an interesting insight into him as person & what drives him but then again, most of that we already knew.

He could have written several books just on the time at arsenal and i really wish he had gone into more details. The unbeaten season is covered in about 4 pages!

I suspect he didnt want to write about what happened towards the end in order not to cause conflict with the club etc but this book was a massive let down imo

yes, i'd agree, it was very unsatisfying, especially when i discovered the last few tens of pages were just stats detailing his career so it's even shorter than it looks...

[dostoy]

He is so senile now, he doesn't know what Arsenal is let alone remember managing them.

He is just a senile doddery old fucker.

[Niall_Quinn]

I wonder will it make it into the NYT Bestseller Top 4?

[Özim]

Got to agree with the comments on his tenure, first part was amazing, champagne football, great players left right and centre just so exciting, couldn't get enough of it, we also made some really exciting signings. Then the stadium move happened and it went seriously pear shaped, the football became boring, the players one dimensional and unable to do anything but pass 5 yards, no hunger, no desire and susbstandards players making a huge amounts, much more than their talents deserved and achieving nothing.

I remember him claiming the young players he had in 2009 I think were the best group of players he ever had, which was a laughable claim considering what came before and who can forget the 2% away from domination comment on his claims coming 4th was like a major trophy.

I think it all went wrong the minute he became comfortable with being 2nd best and when winning was no longer that important and when he changed the style of play to that predictable annd boring pass pass style when he tried to turn us into Barcelona lite without the quality of players.

Could have been very different but he was too stubborn for his own good and never willing to listen to the advice others gave instead deciding to stick to his tried and failed method.

[Letters]

Just finished his book and i was quite disappointed with it.

It’s very short and skims over his life at arsenal in about 100 pages with no real details. It gives an interesting insight into him as person & what drives him but then again, most of that we already knew.

He could have written several books just on the time at arsenal and i really wish he had gone into more details. The unbeaten season is covered in about 4 pages!

I suspect he didnt want to write about what happened towards the end in order not to cause conflict with the club etc but this book was a massive let down imo

:(. Will probably still ask Santa for it, but doesn't sound as good as I would have hoped.
There's so much he could have said about everything that went on in 20 years managing Arsenal.
This was his chance to give his side of things, it's a shame if he doesn't say much.
Tbh I watched the Graham Norton show he was on and it was pretty boring. He's a pretty deep thinker but he's not much of a raconteur

[Letters]

Got to agree with the comments on his tenure, first part was amazing, champagne football, great players left right and centre just so exciting, couldn't get enough of it, we also made some really exciting signings.
:gp:

Wenger :bow:

;)

It's disappointing if Wenger doesn't talk more about the later time in his Arsenal career. I don't buy into the rhetoric about him becoming a bumbling idiot . Money was clearly tight when we moved stadium - Dein has talked about that. And I think that happening just when the billionaires started to have the biggest impact was a factor. But there were other factors. Wenger brought things like fitness methods and knowledge of the worldwide game to the table - and I'll concede it helped that France had a bit of a golden generation just when he was picking some of the cream of that crop. But other clubs caught up, he no longer had that edge. I don't agree that the football suddenly became poor when we got to the new stadium. For a while there was still some very good stuff even if results were more patchy. But over time it certainly became worse. It kinda felt like football moved on and Wenger didn't. It happens.
I'm glad he won the FA Cups near the end although I wish he'd gone out after the last one. His final season was a bit painful all round.
Would love to hear more about his side of all that and it's a shame if it's not in the book.

[Ollie the Optimist]

One of the most revealing things about the book though was about when Wenger joined Arsenal & spurs fans started the rumour he was paedophile.

Wenger states that the press actually went to Monaco where his wife & stepson were living to ask the stepson how he was around him. Pretty disgusting from the press and i didnt realise it went that far beyond just nonsense from rival fans.

You can almost feel the anger radiating off the page when he writes about that bit

[Globalgunner]

I wonder will it make it into the NYT Bestseller Top 4?

Letters buying 5000 copies should help it into the top 100

[Letters]

:lol:

Wenger :bow:

[Niall_Quinn]

Letters buying 5000 copies should help it into the top 100

Top 100 is like a trophy.