<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div>All,</div><div>Please find below and attached Phil Wedge's review of <i>Wenger: My Life and Lessons in Red and White, </i>by Arsene Wenger, Arsenal Football Club.</div><div>Thanks</div><div>Duncan</div><div><br></div><div>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Wenger:
My Life and Lessons in Red and White<span></span></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Reviewed by Philip Wedge, University of Kansas<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Arsene Wenger managed 22
seasons at Arsenal Football Club from 1996-2018, winning three league titles,
and seven FA cups, and finishing in the top four in all but the last two
seasons, when they were fifth, and in the final season before he was pushed out
with one year left on his contract, sixth.<span>
</span>Yet Wenger covers his time at Arsenal in about one hundred pages in his
new autobiography, <i>Wenger: My Life and Lessons in Red and White</i>,
translated from the French by Daniel Hahn and Andrea Reece. He does, however,
give a full chapter to his team’s crowning achievement, the “Invincible” season
of 2003-04, in which the Gunners went a full Premier League season without a
loss, the only team in the league’s history to accomplish that feat.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">I enjoyed reading
Wenger’s take on the Invincible team, the meshing together of holdover players
from the George Graham era—Tony Adams and Lee Dixon, for example—with those
acquired by Wenger after he began managing the club, such as Thierry Henry,
Patrick Vieira, Jens Lehman, and Sol Campbell. Wenger had challenged this team
before the season by saying they had it in them to go undefeated: <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span><span>
</span>At the start of the season, I had told the team: ‘I know that you can
win without <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span>losing a match.’ I was convinced of
it and I wanted them to be convinced, to internalize<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span>the challenge . . . . When setting
lofty objectives, it takes time and patience for them<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span>to become fixed in people’s minds.
But my aim was to win all the time, to defer<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span>defeat and make the fear of losing
disappear. (Wenger 155)<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">This passage is fairly
typical of the “my life and lessons” part of the autobiography, a coach’s
distillation of what he sees in his sport and a rationale for how events
unfolded.<span> </span>Wenger says his team achieved
“a state of grace” that season, “a unique spirit specific to that particular
team” (Wenger 156). Wenger’s idealistic view of the world comes through here,
his self-belief in what he can get out of his team by predicting their ability
to go undefeated in thirty-eight football matches. <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">As
Amy Lawrence showed in her book on that season, <i>Invincible: Inside Arsenal’s
Unbeaten 2003-2004 Season</i>, the players were less convinced about the merits
of this challenge, especially after clinching the league championship with four
games left to play. Kolo Toure found the Invincible challenge “stressful,” and
Vieira added, “we didn’t want to put any more pressure on our shoulders”
(Lawrence 176). As Henry observed, being Invincible was an abstract prize
rather than a trophy or a medal: “You are fighting for something you will never
see” (Lawrence 177). Yet Wenger is right in the end to take credit for the vision,
for pushing his team to see the imaginary as possible. Ironically, though, as bemoaned
by many a frustrated Arsenal fan, that team was the last one to win the league
championship! The Ferguson era at Manchester United and the financing of
Arsenal’s move from Highbury to the Emirates Stadium, among other factors,
would see to that.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">To
be honest, the most interesting reading for me in Wenger’s <i>My Life</i> were
the chapters leading up to Wenger’s appointment at Arsenal, about his youth in
Alsace, his transition from midfield player to coach, and his time managing
Nancy and Monaco in the French leagues. Wenger’s parents ran a bistro in their
village of Duttlenheim, near Strasbourg, which was <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0in 0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">filled with men who drank one beer after another and
smoked unfiltered Gauloises <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0in 0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">and talked nonstop football—their team, the
neighboring team, the team they would <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0in 0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">be up against next, and the team they so admired,
Racing Club de Strasbourg, which<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0in 0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">fired them up, made them smoke more and drink more and
then so often shout, and <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0in 0.5in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">fight, and fall. (Wenger 18)<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Wenger claims that from a
young age, “I retained their fervor but not their excess,” learning to love
football but also to read people: “it gave me strength and an incredible
instinct for understanding people” (Wenger 18-19). Certainly, the ability to
read people is essential to managing any professional sports club.<span> </span>His colorful description of meeting a player
for an impromptu try-out on the way to interviewing to become an assistant
coach at Nancy, playing four-on-four with him and then taking him to Nancy to
sign a contract is a good early example of player management. In his chapter on
his time at Monaco, Wenger discusses coaching philosophies he developed which
remained with him through the years at Arsenal, training sessions that
emphasize technical abilities, the mixing of zonal and man-to-man marking, the
importance of two-way communication between player and coach, and the value of
youth training through academy systems such as Monaco’s <i>centre de formation</i>
(Wenger 84).<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span>The final chapter, “My Life after Arsenal,” describes his
life without Arsenal, without “that pitch . . . that was my adrenaline, my
drug, my reason for living” (Wenger 216), but he has not rested in forced
retirement, having become FIFA’s head of Global Football Development late in
2019.<span> </span>This gives him the opportunity to
promote the coaching and development of playing the “beautiful” football he
referenced repeatedly in interviews and press conferences over the years at
Arsenal. While he will no doubt be a fine ambassador for the game, I think
Wenger underestimates the American youth soccer scene for lacking youth
development—has he not heard of the Olympic Development Program or academies
set up by Major League Soccer clubs? He also believes the greatest challenge
for women’s football is in gaining “technical precision” (Wenger 220). I wonder
what former Arsenal women’s stars like Kelly Smith or current Arsenal stars
Vivianne Miedema and Katie McCabe, who lead the WSL in goals and assists,
respectively, think of that comment.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span>Wenger’s autobiography closes with a 90-page section of
statistics, “Career Record,” to please stats-freaks like me. After a 2-page
summary of Wenger’s statistics as a player (1969-1981), we get the league
records and standings for each team Wenger managed, from his first season at
Nancy (1984) to his last at Arsenal (2018), a summary of his accomplishments at
Arsenal, a list of every player who appeared for Arsenal during Wenger’s
tenure, and a list of the top ten transfer fees paid by Arsenal during his
time. I should mention the book also contains some great photos, including a
classic one from 2009 of Wenger, arms spread wide, standing amongst the Old
Trafford fans after being sent off the pitch by referee Mike Dean—for kicking a
water bottle!<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span>In some ways, <i>Wenger: My Life and Lessons in Red and
White </i>is written particularly with Arsenal fans in mind, assuming they can
fill in gaps in the narrative from memory while Wenger tries to mollify their disappointment
at the club maintaining a top-four level without ever claiming a league
championship during his last fourteen years managing Arsenal FC. For those
interested in the history of the Premier League, Wenger’s autobiography is well
worth the read, since he has been so much a part of the League’s history,
having managed more matches (823) than anyone else. For the same reason, it is
a must read for longtime fans of the Arsenal, giving the manager’s perspective
of their team, a manager who changed the English game, injected a European technical
flair, and brought a host of European talent with him.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span>Wenger,
Arsene. <i>Wenger: My Life and Lessons in
Red and White</i><span>, Daniel Hahn and
Andrea Reed, trans.</span> (Chronicle Prism 2020).<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Philip Wedge, English, University of Kansas<span></span></span></p>
</div><div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature">Remember to smell the roses as you recumber past<br><br>Duncan R. Jamieson, Ph. D.<br>Professor of History<br>Book Review Editor<br><i>AETHLON: The Journal of Sport Literature</i><br>Ashland University<br>Ashland, OH 44805<br>USA<br></div></div></div></div></div></div>