Arsenal’s Arsène Wenger scarred for life by Monaco...

[Shola]

Glenn Hoddle, right, pictured in 1987, was one of a number of high-profile players attracted to Monaco by Arsène Wenger, left. Photograph: Patrick Boutroux/L'equipe






Arsenal manager developed his managerial philosophy at Monaco but rivalry with Marseille and his loathing of corrupt Bernard Tapie cast shadow over seven-year reign.

The question prompts a few seconds of considered silence before Claude Puel, so at ease discussing his subject of choice, delivers an assessment of how Arsène Wenger is best remembered at Monaco. “He left an impression,” says the club’s former stalwart player and head coach. “He was respected and admired. No other manager can match the seven years he spent in charge there, a longevity that showed he realised the importance of building up the whole club and not just offering the team a quick fix.” And then comes the caveat. “But, of course, what happened did scar him.” Monaco may have been the making of Wenger but his experiences in the principality also left him wounded.

The Champions League has conjured another reunion in the knockout phase. Arsenal, Wenger’s to shape for almost 19 years and a club on whom he has now left an indelible mark, welcome the Monégasques to the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday for a fixture which may have the 65-year-old wistfully recalling where it all began. Monaco was not his first managerial appointment but it was his first chance at the helm of a contender. Many of the strategies later lauded at Arsenal had been road-tested at the club’s then ramshackle training complex, La Turbie, or at Stade Louis II. This was where he first claimed major honours. Yet Monaco was also where Wenger was exposed to football’s more sinister side, where underhand tactics rendered even his most exhaustive efforts redundant and where, ultimately, he was sacked. Some things cannot be controlled with discipline, diet or even diligence.

Wenger’s story at Monaco requires context. He had first made his mark with Nancy-Lorraine, an unfancied team he had led to a respectable 12th place in his first season and then steered through a relegation play-off to retain top-flight status the following year. Nancy was an apprenticeship, a stage upon which to implement innovative training sessions at their Forêt de Haye complex, all of which he annotated diligently, but it also delivered a painful lesson in losing. His team were forever punching above their weight with life about survival. Defeats were a matter of course and that mindset did not sit easily with the Alsatian.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...naco-marseille

[Gamma]

i thought you meant he was scarred by the publishing of the picture of him in '***** riders' .....

[Jangle]

hehehe....yuh beat me to it Missah Barristah. Those were some dark days of football back when they use to wear those riders. I was scarred when I saw a picture of Peter Beardsley sliding into a tackle and him pink.... .....yuh know wha....the memory is almost unbearable.