Football: Wenger's gospel of dedication

The Arsenal manager tells Glenn Moore how and why his methods have had such an impact at Highbury this season

As Arsenal prepare to meet Newcastle United today in a match which could go a long way to deciding whether they will enter the Champions' League as Premiership runners-up, it is hard to remember Highbury's mood when the season opened.

Arsenal were the "crisis club" - Bruce Rioch had been sacked and an unknown Frenchman appointed who could not take over as he was working in Japan. Who then could have anticipated their current position, second in the Premiership and purveyors of some of the best football of the season?

Not the bookies. The Frenchman, no longer unknown, remembers their mood. "Foreign managers had not been successful and one of the biggest bets was how long I would last," he recalled with a grin. "Everybody was betting that I would be gone by 1 January."

Arsene Wenger is now regarded as something of a guru, bringing enlightened ideas to the English game. Some of those ideas still take getting used to as I found when we met a few days ago in the Hertfordshire hotel Arsenal use as a base while their burned-down training facilities are rebuilt. It was early afternoon and I was tempted to order some tea and cakes to ease the conversation. Fortunately, I did not. Wenger, it transpires, would rather we did not eat cake.

We had been discussing the professionalism, or alleged lack of it, of English players when he suddenly said: "It is not the players' attitude which is the problem, it is the culture of the country. The whole day you have tea or coffee with milk and sugar and cakes. It is the worst, it is not conducive to a high sports diet. In the morning, eggs and bacon and a big fried breakfast, then tea and coffee with milk and sugar and cakes. Cake everyday, the whole day."

While saying this, Wenger has been looking appalled. As Ian Wright's tales of grilled broccoli with everything have indicated, this is a man who takes every aspect of a footballer's life seriously. It is hard to argue with the results.

He has, perhaps, been fortunate to arrive at Highbury just as men like Paul Merson and Tony Adams have been reassessing their lifestyle. It means he can say: "I don't think the drinking is a problem at Arsenal, not any more. They drink in other countries too - in Italy they drink wine, here they drink beer."

But, I argue, session drinking is unusual in Italy. "It is rare in southern Europe,'' admits Wenger. "It is a northern thing, England, Scandinavia. But while people drink more, they smoke less. In France and southern Europe the problem is smoking. Nowhere is perfect, it would be boring if they were."

It sounds puritan, but that last comment betrays Wenger's acceptance of human faults. He would not have made the impact he has at Arsenal, and so quickly got the support of the players, if he were merely an imposer of rules.

"I was surprised by the attitude of the players when I came. I thought they would be more resistant to a foreign manager, but they were positive. When you can convince somebody that he can play better by doing something, he will accept it - or he is an idiot. I think generally players are very intelligent, so it is down to the manager to convince the players, Then you have to win games - if you do not nobody believes in you.

"The players were better technically than I expected. English players do not look as good as they are because of the pace of the game and because they are not encouraged at the back to take risks in the build-up. The cautious attitude prevents defenders from showing their technique."

Not at Arsenal, not any more. One of the features of Wenger's reign are the regular appearances of defenders like Steve Bould and Tony Adams in attack. "English players are naturally attacking, they love to win," Wenger said. "Players do not play for a draw. Sometimes abroad you can feel on the pitch they are saying: `If we play 0-0 it is all right'. Here they always give you more in the game than what you expect.

"Teams do not give up, you always feel you are under pressure and can lose control of the game. The special atmosphere of the stadiums is a factor. It is fantastic. You can be leading 3-0, they come back to 3-1, suddenly you are in hell.

"The fans here are fantastic. So many people tell me: `I am an Arsenal supporter for 40 years'. I always feel such a great responsibility to these people. You can imagine if you have followed a club for so long how big a disappointment can be. It is amazing but it is also slightly scary because you feel if you disappoint these people you are really a bad man." All this from a man who is yet to read or see Fever Pitch.

Wenger also said he believes the Premier League will be the best in the world in two or three years, but that is enough flattery. What does he not like about England? What would he change? It appears he is still unhappy about fixtures.

"It is the wrong idea that there are too many, it is the way they are arranged which is not right. For me, the predominant fixture should be the championship, you should not re-arrange matches for cup replays or when the foreign players [non-British] have games with their national team. It is unbelievable. You should go down to 18 in the Premier League and cut the replays of the FA Cup and the Coca-Cola Cup.

"FA Cup replays may be part of the history of the game here, but you cannot have everything. You cannot have what you had before, be efficient in Europe, and have a Premier League with regular fixtures. It is impossible."

Then there is the press. "The positive side is that there is a lot of coverage. I love that. The negative side is they are too intrusive. When they don't check what they say I hate, and when they say the truth they can say anything. Rumours and smear campaigns are bad."

Which brings us to the different manners of Japan. "It is a society where people respect each other. When you come back you feel this stupid adversity we have in Europe, all this aggression, jealousy and mercenary attitude. It is stupid the way we live. In Japan, there is everything you need to work but I came back - I did it because I love football and the place you have to be is Europe.

Now Wenger lives in England, in a house among the leafy environs of the M25's northern ring. Does he enjoy living in England?

"I can't tell you how it is to live here. I know the way to go to my house, to Colney [where Arsenal train], to Highbury and the airport. That's it. I have not time to do something else. I work every day and when I have a day off I go to France. I live always like that, in Japan also. I don't get the feeling I work because I enjoy what I do. Sometimes I don't know what to do if I don't go to the ground or don't practice. I have lived like that for 18 years. I don't need something to relax as I relax every day."

Wenger is clearly as obsessed as any fan. What will he do when there is no football? For the first time he looks perturbed, almost scared, as he considers the prospect.

"That is my biggest problem. It is difficult for me to think about it. As long as you have your health, it is a disaster to stop working. It is to one day find you are out of society. You can find some hobbies but I would always feel what I was doing was not important. Maybe I will be a director, an adviser. I can't see myself just sitting around enjoying the sun and looking at the sky. It is impossible for me."

This recalls the sad image of Bill Shankly hanging around Bellefield, Everton's training ground, because he left Liverpool prematurely and then got the feeling he was no longer wanted there. Will Wenger, one day, be haunting Tottenham? Probably not, as he sees Arsenal not as his life's work but as just another chapter.

"I want to do well with Arsenal, to respect the tradition of the club, and to leave something here so I can one day come back and have the satisfaction of seeing players who worked with me still doing well. I do not have a timespan. All I know in this job you must work every day as if you could stay your whole life but know you could leave any day."