Arsene Wenger, nerves and daring to think differently
I love radio because of the flexibility of the medium. I was asked on talkSPORT at 7 this morning to talk to the always lively Alan Brazil and Ray Parlour, was informed by the producer that the pair were in festive mood - no surprise, it’s Friday - and that we’d be chatting about Pep Guardiola’s contract extension. Right, all primed, Guardiola thoughts prepared and, within seconds, Ray was reminiscing about Arsene Wenger and what he was like before Arsenal games.
It was within the general theme about great managers, I suppose, and in the frame of a Guardiola discussion and particularly relationship with players. Guardiola makes players better with his one-on-one tactical and technical coaching (ask Raheem Sterling, Kyle Walker and John Stones). He challenges them to be better (ask Walker). Guardiola enthuses them with his constant quest for perfection.
But this was the joyous, elastic world of radio, and our conversation went off on a merry tangent. I mentioned bumping into Wenger 20 minutes before an Arsenal game at the City Ground. I was surprised to see him at a bar upstairs in the main stand, sipping a coffee, surrounded by Nottingham Forest fans who very respectfully left the visiting manager to his pre-match thoughts.
I asked Wenger why he wasn’t in the dressing-room and he replied he didn’t want his nervousness before kick-off to distract or diminish the players. Ray explained this was normal from Wenger, who’d done all his work preparing the players, trusted them and left them to prepare. Wenger was a player-whisperer in many ways, reading his players’ characters intuitively and bringing the best out of them.