For Arsenal FC, a club renowned for its off-field stability, the past few months have been unusually turbulent. The departure of vice-chairman David Dein in April was followed by the sale of star striker Thierry Henry to FC Barcelona, and the ongoing struggle for ownership of the club has been described as "disruptive and destabilising" by chairman Peter Hill-Wood. And yet, despite the gravity of those changes, the issue troubling Gunners fans most over the summer was the future of one man and one man only: the manager Arsène Wenger.
Arsenal began their tenth consecutive UEFA Champions League campaign with a thrilling 3-0 win against Sevilla FC on Wednesday, and the majority of the 60,000 crowd present at the club's glittering new home were in no doubt who has made such sustained success possible. Wenger has transformed the north London outfit since his arrival in 1996, overseeing the construction of a new training complex, revolutionising methods, forging exciting, trophy-winning teams and instigating the ambitious stadium move.
It is no wonder alarm bells started ringing when the erstwhile Alsacian, whose contract was due to expire next year, admitted to feeling unsettled by Dein's departure. Yet after signing a three-year extension earlier this month, the 57-year-old Frenchman claimed he had never doubted staying on at "the club of my life". For Wenger, the idea of leaving having moulded such an exciting young squad was unthinkable. Speaking to uefa.com, Wenger said: "It is the start of a new era. It's a new team I have constructed with my staff and it's a new adventure. What's more it's a team I have great belief in and that is why I have signed a new contract."
Arsenal have so far justified that belief by surging to the top of the Premier League after five games and appear to have adopted a more collective style. While previously they relied heavily on the sublime talents of Henry, others are now being urged to step forward. "We've lost a great player so on an individual level we will miss something," Wenger conceded. "But we're trying to compensate for that with the blossoming of our young players, by greater use of initiative, by sharing responsibility at the heart of the side which was sometimes a bit too concentrated on one player from an attacking point of view. I hope this big loss will be alleviated by the dividing up of tasks."
Henry is not the only experienced international to quit Arsenal recently. In July, Freddie Ljungberg became the latest member of the "invincible" 2003/04 team to leave, emulating the likes of Sol Campbell, Patrick Vieira, Lauren, Ashley Cole, Dennis Bergkamp, Robert Pires, Martin Keown and Edu. Of the regulars, only Jens Lehmann, Kolo Touré and Gilberto remain. The squad is now flushed with youth, but while critics point to their inexperience, Wenger is convinced the third great Arsenal side of his reign is about to be born. "A lack of experience can always be a handicap although this squad already reached the Champions League final two years ago," he pointed out. "I'm looking for them to acquire a precocious maturity so that they handle the big matches while being fully aware of their responsibilities. Since the start of the season that's exactly what I've observed. This is a side I have great pleasure working with. They have a degree of maturity which is incredibly rare for players so young."
One player who epitomises Wenger's philosophy is Cesc Fabregas who has already played over 100 league games and assumes a fundamental role in the team despite being only 20. For fans of a certain age, the Spaniard's vision is reminiscent of 1970s hero Liam Brady, while Wenger could not avoid comparing his midfield general with Michel Platini this week. But the former AS Monaco FC boss does not want Arsenal to become too dependent on Fabregas, as they may have done with Henry. "I hope he doesn't carry too much responsibility and continues to have this desire within to keep improving and to become the best," Wenger said. "The rest will come naturally because he has immense talent."
With Fabregas pulling the strings, youngsters like Gaël Clichy, Abou Diaby and Emmanuel Adebayor making giant strides, and more experienced men such as Touré, Aleksandr Hleb, Tomáš Rosický and Robin van Persie now fully established, Wenger may be close to finding the winning formula again. And he hopes the one prize that has so far eluded him could finally be within reach. "I'm looking forward to being involved in matches at the highest level," he said of his latest Champions League challenge. "It's exciting, something to look forward to, an adventure, which can unfortunately often lead to disappointment because you can't reach the final every year. But it's always a great, great pleasure." So long as Wenger remains in the dugout, Arsenal fans will no doubt agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment.
