Changing room chat: Wenger hits milestone at Arsenal

Published on Wednesday 30 September 2009 23:45

WHEN Arsene Wenger walked into English football with that statuesque gait and professorial manner he was greeted with the famous headline: 'Arsene Who?'

Today, Wenger clocks up 4,749 days in charge of Arsenal, eclipsing the reign of George Allison in the 1930s and 1940s to become the longest-serving manager in the club's history.

On the way he has won three Premier League titles, four FA Cups and taken Arsenal to the Champions League final.

Wenger's finest season was 2003/04 when his Invincibles went unbeaten on their way to the Premier League title. But the FA Cup the follow season was the last trophy Wenger won. The Frenchman's 13-year reign has been characterised by his team's eyecatching flowing football, but that has come with a hard edge and he has seen his side receive 76 red cards – if rarely the incidents that led to them!

"The highest point was to play a whole season unbeaten. No matter how much money anybody else has invested, nobody else has done that," Wenger reflected.

"Losing the semi-final of the Champions League to Manchester United last year was the lowest point, because we did not play at our level."

A yen to market icon Nakamura

SPANISH club Espanyol have sent a delegation to Japan to explore ways of exploiting the marketing opportunities provided by former Celtic midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura. The trip includes meetings with travel agencies to arrange fan trips to Barcelona and plans for a tour of Japan next year. "Nakamura is our big icon in terms of our presence in Japan but the Espanyol brand also represents values that are in tune with Japanese society," marketing director Raul Cipres said. "The idea is to play two or three matches in Japan at the end of July or start of August."

Maradona seeks help from above

ARGENTINA coach Diego Maradona has called on God's hand to shield the South American country from World Cup elimination.

"The Beard (God] saved me many times, I hope he saves me this time too," said Maradona, whose notorious 'Hand of God' goal helped Argentina eliminate England in the Mexico 1986 quarter-final against England and is one of the most talked about incidents at a World Cup.

Maradona has often said God saved him when he put his life in danger over his drug and alcohol addictions.

TALES FROM THE TABS

IT'S A REFFING OUTRAGE

THAT "bungling" referee Jonas Eriksson has upset all the red tops. Not only did he not award Rangers a penalty, but he had the temerity to give Sevilla four goals as well.

"Chickened out" is how the Daily Express phrases it beneath the headline "That was a cop-out". The Sun, however, claims Walter Smith's boys were "robbed" and lets sickened striker Steven Naismith slam the Swedish whistler. "You cheated us out of a penalty," he claims. The Sun claims sad Rangers were "left bloodied and battered after being smacked in the Konk by super Sevilla". That's Abdoulay Konko, whose challenge on Naismith merited a red card, it's claimed.

Nacho Novo scored a great goal to give home fans hope for the Old Firm derby and he vowed in the Daily Record that Rangers will bounce back but admitted: "We were sleeping a few times, including myself for the third when I lost the ball."

The Daily Mirror reported England manager Fabio Capello's whistle-stop tour of English Premier League games this weekend. Bolton, Man United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Aston Villa are all on the Italian's agenda.