Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger Biography

Arsène Wenger was born on October 22, 1949 in Strasbourg, France. He is currently the Manager of Arsenal F.C one of the elite clubs in U.K. Wenger spent much of his youth playing football and organizing matches at the village team, FC Duttlenheim, where he made to the first team at the age of 16 and was later recruited to nearby club AS Mutzig. Wenger started his professional football in 1978, making his debut for RC Strasbourg against Monaco.
While playing for RC Strasbourg they won the Ligue 1 title in 1978-79, and also played in the UEFA Cup in the same season. After playing couple of seasons for RC Strasbourg he finally retired from the professional football in 1981.
In 1981, he obtained a manager's diploma and was appointed the coach of the club's youth team. Wenger first senior job came in 1984 for AS Nancy-Lorraine. While coaching for Nancy there were ups and downs for Wenger. In his last season as a manager, Nancy finished 19th and were relegated to the Ligue 2. After quitting the job of Nancy Wenger joined another club AS Monaco in France in 1987. As a manager for Monaco, Wenger managerial career took off when he won the league in 1988 in his first season in charge and also the French Cup in 1991. As a manager of Monaco, Wenger sign some of the big names in football such as Glenn Hoddle, George Weah, Jürgen Klinsmann and Youri Djorkaeff. During the coaching for Monaco Wenger turned down offers by Bayern Munich and the France national team. Soon he was fired after a poor start to the 1994-95 season.
It didn`t took much longer for Wenger to find another club for coaching Japanese J. League team Nagoya Grampus Eight hire him. He took the club from the bottom three to runners-up position in the league. As a manger for Nagoya Grampus Eight he won Emperor's Cup with them. Soon he left the club and joined London club Arsenal F.C in 1996 and became Arsenal's first manager from outside the UK.

After taking charge of Arsenal, Wenger requested that the club should sign French midfielders Patrick Vieira and Rémi Garde. Wenger first match in charge was a 2-0 away victory over Blackburn Rovers on October 12, 1996. He finished the season on the third spot in the league. Second season proved to be fabulous for Wenger as they won both Premier League and FA Cup. The reason for success of his was signing of new players' winger Marc Overmars Tony Adams, Steve Bould, Nigel Winterburn, Lee Dixon, Martin Keown and teenage striker Nicolas Anelka.
The following few seasons were comparatively barren with a series of near misses. In 1998-99, they lost the Premiership title to Manchester United by a single point on the final day of the season, and United also eliminated Arsenal in extra time in an FA Cup semi-final. This was followed the next season by losing the UEFA Cup Final to Galatasaray on penalties and the 2001 FA Cup Final to Liverpool 2-1. Wenger resolved to bring new players to the squad, with the controversial signing of Tottenham's Sol Campbell as well as first-team players such as Fredrik Ljungberg, Thierry Henry and Robert Pirès.
For the next couple of seasons Wenger didn`t managed to win any league title but compensate it by winning FA cup in 2003.Wenger won his last Premier League title in 2004. With another FA Cup win in 2005, in all, Arsenal have won three Premier League titles and four FA Cups under Wenger, making him Arsenal's most successful manager in terms of trophies. However, the UEFA Champions League title still eludes him; the closest Arsenal have come was when they reached the final in 2005-06, the first time in club history, which they lost 2-1 to Barcelona.
Wenger have certain approaches and philosophy to the games. Wenger's approach to the game has been an emphasis on attack. His style of play has been contrasted with the pragmatic approach of his rivals, but has also been criticized for lacking a "killer touch". Although Wenger for number of years had employed a 4-4-2 formation. Wenger Philosophy is to bring in younger and relatively unknown talent to the club.
Wenger is in the list of Espn Classic as they think 'The Professor' has guided Arsenal to their second League and FA Cup double in his first full season at Highbury and won further League titles in 2002 and 2004. He has won four FA Cups to date and taken the club to two European Finals. Possibly the greatest aspect of his time as manager has been their consistency, as they currently hold the record of 49 league games undefeated.

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