Wenger, the Allfather Odin of Arsenal, leaves behind Premier League’s most influential legacy

Allfather, they called him.

As the “father of all gods”, Odin was Norse mythology’s central figure, the foundation. His role in the creation of the worlds was the most crucial; as the “giver of life” he was the embodiment of the spirit that coursed through them. His complexities were mirrored in theirs, his considerable strengths and equally substantial weaknesses exacerbated within them. He was astute, discerning and constantly sought wisdom, which he then shared. He was also obstinate, single-minded and consumed with a sense of purpose, an enigma to all who looked upon him.

Thus it perhaps was with Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, an association now, after 22 years, almost inconceivably about to be relegated to the past tense. Master and chief creator of modern-day Arsenal, Wenger is the club’s most influential individual since the heady pre-war days of Herbert Chapman.

Conductor of beautiful, flawed football teams, Wenger is the man responsible for taking Arsenal to the world. A champion of financial fair play in football, he has, perhaps naively, believed in running a club the ‘right’ way.

A stubborn man, castigated to the high heavens by the media, abused by supporters of his own club relentlessly, but refusing to budge from a powerful belief, long forgotten or given up on by others.

A man who rose from nowhere to build a powerful, successful club, who ultimately buckled under the weight of the standards he himself had set.

A decade of brilliance

Twenty-two years ago, it would have been difficult to imagine that this bespectacled, rangy, wisp of a man with a heavy French accent would be anything other than an amusing side-story before his inevitable sacking. One of the first foreign managers in the Premier League, his obituary was written before he arrived.

In the seasons before Wenger’s arrival in October 1996, Arsenal finished fifth, 12th, 4th and 10th. After his arrival, they finished in the top four for 21 consecutive seasons, winning the league three times, making the third most successful club (after Manchester United and Liverpool) in the history of the league. They also won seven FA cups, making Wenger the most successful manager in the competition’s history.

Much has been written about his scientific methods and competitiveness, and the titanic shift it promoted not just within Arsenal but across the Premier League in general. His contribution to other English clubs dropping their insularity and age-old systems was decisive, with changes in diet and a fresh outlook on statistics eventually adopted by all. By scouting and recruiting top talent from across the world at a time when English clubs barely crossed the Channel, he brought about a monumental change in strategy and direction.

Wenger Mk – I and Mk – II, The Wonder Years

He built the Double-winning team in 1997-’98, with a backline that was thought to be ageing. He extended the careers of club legends like Tony Adams, Steve Bould, Lee Dixon, and Nigel Winterburn, bringing in strict diets and training regimes. Adams in particular faced a tough battle with alcoholism and found a god-sent ally in Wenger to fight it. Wenger brought in superlative talent like the young Nicolas Anelka, Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit and Marc Overmars, to supplement the redoubtable, yet underused genius of Dennis Bergkamp.

Wenger repeated the double-winning feat in 2001-’02, in what was to be club legend and captain Tony Adams’s 14th and last season. As the old guard bowed out, Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Sol Campbell, Gilberto Silva, and Fredrik Ljungberg had been added to a team that now played arguably the best attacking football on the planet. A bitter rivalry with Manchester United and Alex Ferguson every season for the title resulted in some memorable battles and bruising confrontations on the pitch.

Wenger had been building on his dream of a perfect season, the Holy Grail for any football club; to end the season as undefeated champions. Under the leadership of Patrick Vieira, Arsenal stunned the football world by winning the 2003-’04 title with a record of 38 games played, 26 wins, 12 draws, zero losses. Wenger was invincible.

There was criticism as well. Wenger’s teams faltered in European competitions far too frequently, unable to cope with the pressure and ultimately failing to do justice to the talent within their ranks. For the most part, there was a view that Wenger would always play as per his philosophy of free-flowing, attacking football, and not employ tactics to counter opposition team’s strengths. Managers started to find ways to get into the skin of his eclectic band of geniuses, and to make them play into their hands. Ferguson, in particular, had the upper hand for most of their battles, relying on a physical and incisive strategy to expose the weak backbone of even the greatest Arsenal teams.

The first eight years proved to be his Wonder Years, save for his failings in Europe and inability to defend a domestic title. His legacy as one of Arsenal’s greatest managers was already cemented.

Wenger Mk-III, The Youth Project

Prominent among Odin’s tales is the story of how, in his relentless pursuit of wisdom, he readily sacrificed his own eye to drink from the Well of Urd – the well of wisdom. This determination and obstinacy to acquire and impart wisdom is legendary, and perhaps also the bane of Odin’s existence.

Arsenal had grown too big for their venerable stadium, Highbury, with ambitions of a big club demanding that they find a new home. The move to the Emirates Stadium, nay Ashburton Grove, materialised in 2006, even as the team Wenger had painstakingly built started unravelling before his eyes.

The stadium costs demanded years of austerity, at a time when money was impacting the English and global game like in no other era. Wenger’s response was to do away with star power almost entirely and to build a team with a backbone of youth. The likes of Cesc Fabregas, Alex Hleb, Robin van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor, Tomas Rosicky were brought in to form a team that played some of the best football an Arsenal team has ever played. They competed at a time when Chelsea and Manchester United regularly pushed the envelope every transfer season to claim dominance in the league.

However, inexperience and naivete were to be their bane yet again, as early title pushes and dominance collapsed under the weight of expectation in the final months of the season. Wenger’s project, a valiant declaration of his passion for developing young footballers, came unstuck, as Arsenal’s trophy drought stretched across nine seasons, jokes on it virtually forming the very first internet meme.

Wenger stayed on, turning a blind eye to all the jibes, rejecting offers from clubs freshly injected with riches, tirelessly chasing that elusive league title.

Mk-IV, Wenger In, Wenger Out

Settled into a shiny new state-of-the-art stadium but with no trophies to show for it, Wenger was for the first time being questioned by his own supporters. Fan bases were polarised in pro and anti-Wenger camps. Initial rumblings soon descended to full-scale hate and hysteria post every poor result, with the Wenger Out placards focusing attention on a football club spoilt with the successes of years past.

In what would turn out to be the final phase of his life at Arsenal, Wenger built a team centred around the creative talents of Aaron Ramsey, Santi Cazorla and big-money buy Mesut Ozil, with the attacking thrust of Alexis Sanchez leading the club to three FA Cups in the last four years. His last two major signings, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, set the club on course for the next phase of evolution.

The failings and weaknesses, however, have remained. With no league title and lately, even the possibility of competing looking difficult, the board and fan’s pressures proved too much for even the famed obduracy of Arsenal’s iconic manager.

Arsene Wenger, Allfather

Wenger’s biggest contribution to the sport and club can be debated, right from the revolutionary tactics and methods, the great players he developed, the iconic teams he built, the stadium move; to the passion, discernment and class he brought to a sport he still viewed through the prism of childhood, growing up as a young boy in a pub in Alsace, surrounded by footballers.

A thing that sets him apart in an industry and age where human relationships take a backseat in the pursuit of success, is his pure Norse belief in the meritocracy of loyalty, values and effort over the pure democracy of talent. Abou Diaby, Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Tomas Rosicky, Santi Cazorla, to name but a few ,have all suffered career threatening injuries while at Arsenal, putting them out for months, if not years. Lesser men and clubs would have cast them away at the first chance they got, not so with Wenger and Arsenal. Conversely, players had to work hard to receive Wenger’s blessings, to win his undying trust, and to win the chance to ride to Valhalla with him.

Ex-players aspired to greater things after retirement, not purely content to live a life on their riches. George Weah became the President of Liberia, crediting Wenger as the major influence in his life. Nwankwo Kanu is an aspiring political leader in Nigeria, aiming to run for office. Former and current Arsenal players repeatedly refer to his influence as a father figure, finding no better words than those to describe his impact on them.

He was their confidant, their patron saint, their friend. He was their Allfather.

Go well, Wenger. Merci.