The Age of Miracles

On 28th September 2006, Arsene Wenger will complete ten years service as the manager of Arsenal Football Club - a period of such unprecedented accomplishment that even to describe it as the Age of Miracles seems somehow barely adequate.

Consider the highlights in this decade of achievement. Three Premiership titles and four F.A. Cup victories (including historic ‘doubles’ in 1998 and 2002). Four Charity/Community Shields. UEFA Cup finalists 2000. A record unbeaten Premiership season 2003/04. Champions League finalists 2006. A state of the art training complex. A fabulous new stadium, delivered on time. And most important of all, a quality of football – year in, year out – which has put an end to jibes of ‘boring, boring Arsenal’ because utilitarian efficiency has long since given way to imagination, flair, pace and panache. The Age of Miracles has also become the age of style, the time of the Entertainers – and all the pragmatism, thankfully, has gone to Stamford Bridge.

Unsurprisingly, the architect of this transformation has been honoured in his native France with the Legion d’Honneur and in this country with an honorary OBE, an honorary degree and the Freedom of the Borough Islington – fitting tributes to a modest man whose profound influence transcends the famous club which employs him, to be felt in many areas of this country and beyond. He is, quite simply and without the kind of loud posturing which characterises other regimes, the finest and most successful manager in the long and proud history of Arsenal Football Club and many thousands associated with the club try very hard to disregard the fact that one day the man they have come to consider irreplaceable will leave.

There is, however, some consolation in the knowledge that Arsene Wenger, an intelligent, cultured and intensely loyal man who genuinely loves the club, is likely to consider the recommendation of a worthy successor to be his final challenge.