Arsene Wenger, I contend, continues to be one of the most underrated managers. That isn’t to say that many people rate him, quite rightly. It is to say that too many people don’t give him the credit he deserves. I don’t just mean how he revolutionised the game, which he did, but also the legacy he left behind.
In terms of legacy, he only comes second to Ferguson in the modern era. Look around the game today and the owners, coaches and pundits are littered with Sir Alex’s protégés. Gary Neville has shaped himself as perhaps the best pundit on TV today. Look at how many former Man Utd coaches now have managerial posts. Fergie knew what he liked and unsurprisingly he tended to like through and through football people.
Ferguson was the most successful manager of the modern era, but Wenger was his second. He took a club with great tradition but by bringing his own philosophy, he created a hybrid culture which made him the club’s greatest manager since Herbert Chapman. Just as Fergie finally served as the heir to Sir Matt Busby which the Stretford End had been waiting for, in Wenger Highbury finally had a successor to Chapman – the man who revolutionised football in the 1920s and 1930s.
Mikel Arteta was of course a Wenger acquisition. Freddie Ljungberg, the short lived interim prior to Mikel, was one of Wenger’s champions. Look behind the scenes and many academy coaches have Wenger in their blood, including academy poss Per Mertesacker.
Go beyond Arsenal though, and you can see Wenger’s legacy taking seed. The best example is perhaps Patrick Vieira. Two Premiership managers, both captains under Wenger. You can’t say that about anyone else. Yes, Mikel and Patrick are products of more than just Wenger, but they both took so much from The Professor, not least their passion for the beautiful game. Time will tell as to whether Kolo Toure may be another Wenger prodigy; sadly his Wigan spell has not gone as he’d have hoped.
It was lovely to see, at the end of their careers and beyond their departures from club management, Sir Alex and Arsene showed each other the respect and affection that romantics would hope existed between two legendary characters. Now we get to see their legacy play out through the figures they influenced.
Commonplace 