Wenger: The Making of a Legend

by Jasper Rees

In the six years since his arrival at Highbury, Arsene Wenger has made Arsenal FC double Double winners and transformed the reputation of English football in general. Jasper Rees has been granted unprecedented access to Wenger's friends and family, players, and rival managers to write the untold story behind this deeply private man. He follows him from childhood in Alsace, through his period as a journeyman player, to his days as a coach at Nancy, Monaco, Grampus Eight, and finally Arsenal. A surprise appointment at Highbury at the time, Wenger has since converted millions of sceptics to his way of thinking. His revolutionary ideas about management, psychology, diet, and fitness have turned a team of old English crocks, young French misfits, and a Dutch master or two into one of the most sublime footballing teams ever seen.

Genres: Nonfiction, Football, Biography

320 pages, Paperback

First published August 7, 2003

Reviews

[Albert Gubler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wenger: The Legend is an interesting look at the manager of my favorite football team, Arsenal London.

Unfortunately, it suffers from the big problem most biographies of living people face: the story hasn't ended yet. The book was originally published in 2003, right before Mr. Wenger hit the height of his wildly successful career by winning the Premier League unbeaten. He followed that period of sustained success by not winning a trophy in 10 years. And sadly for the book, the books ends again one year before he finally got rid of the monkey on his back and before the win of the FA cup in 2014.

Mr. Rees writes fluidly and offers some great insight in to the thinking of Mr. Wenger, but I would loved to see an even more in-depth analysis of his methods and ideas. He glosses over some of them and repeats himself a lot. However, the book is interesting for anyone wanting to see how the longest-serving manager in English football started out and what some of the Arsenal legends have to say about it. My favorite part of the book was the look at the rivalry between Mr. Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson, which had been fantastic around the turn of century, but unfortunately petered off as Arsenal became less of a threat to United (and were replaced by Chelsea and City as the second force in the country).

I'll probably read the biography of Guardiola next, which supposedly contains more analysis of his footballing ideas.

[Aizat Yasmin · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the future: "I am in a job where you always look in front of you. Unfortunately, the older you get, the less distance there is in front of you.”

Arsene Wenger