The Wenger Years The Premier League Show

Welcome to Premier League show. Tonight we'll be taking an in-depth

look at the reign of Arsene Wenger as he celebrates 20 years in charge

of Arsenal. We'll look back at all the big talking point of the last

seven days of top-flight action. First, we're here at Wembley Stadium

to reflect on what's been a seismic week in English football. LAUGHTER

Get that smile. The new England football manager Sam Allardyce...

It's going to be a great thrill to make everybody so proud of the

England team. Sam Allardyce is being investigated by the FA over claims

he offered advice to businessmen on how to get around player transfer

rules. A significant error of judgment... Sam Allardyce is the

shortest serving England manager. The newspaper claimed Allardyce

cashed in on his position to agree in principle to a ?400,000... He

said inappropriate things for a manager to say. On reflection it was

a silly thing to do. I didn't think it could get any worse. It was a

dream job and I feel very sorry for him. Tremendous sympathy Sam has

lost his job. For him to lose it this way I feel very sorry for him.

The Daily Telegraph alleged four format and current Premier League

managers received bungs for transfers. Not sure how we evaluate

how much corruption there is going on in the game but there is clearly

some. Corruption in football has no place, that's my stance, I'm sure

everyone would agree with me on that. It's bad for football in

general, it is a black mark. I'm joined by Telegraph chief football

writer Sam Wallace. Was the FA right to act as quickly and to part

company with Sam Allardyce in the way they did? I think so. I think it

made the decision easy for them, reading the interviews from Greg

Clark the FA chairman, he seemed to say it was Allardyce accepting his

fate. The big picture is the FA is the moral authority for football in

this country from the England team is a big part of what it does but

not the only thing it does. It has jurisdiction over players, managers,

agents, club owners. That is a very complicated aspect of the FA's life.

The government department is tricky cases like Luis Suarez's races in

case, the John Terry races in case. It's impossible for them to operate

with its highest-paid employee who sees these rules as optional. --

racism case. They are not necessarily sure entrapment was the

right way to go about it. Sam Allardyce says it was entrapment,

what are your thoughts on the modus operandi? The Telegraph would reject

the allegation of entrapment, it was done by our investigations team,

acting on information they had about certain individuals. We are heavily

governed by the ipso code, which means the newspaper can only do

these kind of investigations if they are in the public interest. I would

refer back to Greg Clark the FA chairman's comments, he says it

shows the importance of a free press and the ability of reporters like

the Telegraph investigations unit to look into what he described as the

dark corners to find out what's going on. Are we scratching the

surface here, are there deeper and more problematic areas in football

that with more man-hours will be unearthed? It's a very hard question

to answer. We had the Stevens enquiry ten years ago which cost the

Premier League a lot of money. There were no charges on the basis of

that, it was an experienced Met commissioner who undertook it,

refusing to sign of 17 transfers. No action was taken. With fever, it

needs the authorities to intervene to make change. -- Fifa. Greg Clark

says he feels the police are already overworked and it is football's

problem to solve. I would like to think I could be accused of naivete,

the world is changing. The kind of people I encounter in football who

work as agents and in the recruitment departments, by

different characters to the ones that perhaps in the past could be

accused of corruption. From a manager whose tenure lasted one

match to one who is on 1129. Arsene Wenger has already spoken out to

reassure Arsenal fans they have nothing to worry about when it comes

to his conduct. It's to the Emirates we go next. Arsene Wenger took the

reins at Arsenal on the 1st of October 19 96. At the time unknown

on these shores, the unheralded Frenchman went on to spearhead a

revolution in the English game. Over the last two decade he has

experienced glittering success alongside periods of frustration as

the club and game itself has evolved around him. To mark the anniversary

of his appointment we've assembled a panel of experts to assess and

dissect his legacy. Ian Wright is an Arsenal legend scoring 185 goals in

288 games and winning the double under Arsene Wenger in 1988. Martin

Keown was a Gunnarsson saw what you picked up three Premier League

titles and three FA cups in two spells with the club. Amy Lawrence

's deputy football correspondent at the Observer and author of two books

about the club. John Hartson was signed by George Graham as the most

expensive teenager in European football and experienced his arrival

at first-hand. Piers Morgan is a lifelong Arsenal fan and has been

critical of Arsene Wenger's regime. My main ambition is to bring success

to the team. And satisfy all the people who love Arsenal. Today it

was all about Arsenal. Tony Adams, what a way to clinch the

championship to real life come to England, to win the championship is

a tremendous honour, maybe my biggest satisfaction in my career.

Arsene Wenger, no question about it, manager of the season. Soaring,

soaring Arsenal. They had a lot of critics when I arrived because I was

unknown. Invincible, Arsenal champions. Arsenal people had

confidence in me. Let's go back to the very beginning.

It's easy to forget the landscape of Premier League football managers was

different, there wasn't this plethora of foreign managers. He was

exotic, different, there was some suspicion about him. Who was this

guy, what was he about? Tell us what it was like to be in that dressing

room and hear his name and meet him for the first time. It was weird

because we'd never heard of him obviously. The papers were like

Arsene who? You looked strange, tall, skinny guy, massive glasses,

ill fitting suit, everything looked weird, didn't look like a football

man at all. When I first saw him. I did up and down on him. I had to up

and down him. Obviously after that you started to realise what he was

all about when he opened his mouth. My memory was, I'd never heard him

swear. The boys were there, a bit longer than I was... Didn't raise

his voice. Remember the first time... Blackburn, whether they came

he never spoke for ten minutes, that was absolutely the most strange...

At half-time? Most managers coming, they love the sound of their own

voice, there is always a speech. He just wanted calm, he was clever, he

let us sorted out, police said the first couple of minutes, then he

would have a calm effect, pick out something he felt could change the

game. It was generally about starting to play and once we play

they can't with us. That would mostly happen. The thing I remember

most, every time in the first few weeks he went to an Arsene Wenger

press conference I came away thinking, I've really learn

something today, he was saying things about football I'd never

really heard before anyone else saying, which seems pretentious now

but it really had a powerful effect. I think you felt very different from

the very first impression. Most fans... I was editor of the mirror

at the time, my sport person would come to me and they do do what the

good news or bad news was news, Bruce is going. He wanted rid of

him. I said what's the bad news? He says you are hiring some bloke no

one has ever heard of who been managing in Japan. Arsene Wenger. I

said, who the hell is he? I remember thinking it's so odd, so random.

David Dean spotted in Wenger the future of British football and it

was an unbelievably brilliant appointment. Tell us how aliens of

his ideas were at the time. It literally from Friday doing

everything we were doing before, like normal, to mandate. It

literally... George didn't want us in, it was most extreme. Working in

the canteen was shot? George was like we're not going to pay for you

to have food on Friday, get yourself home. Get home! You weren't allowed

in the canteen before training. It changed. The training ground

remember, when Arsene caning, they showed him the lovely green fields,

he said, what is this? There were no facilities, we can't here. You going

to do impressions the whole way through? The kit man rang me and

said, we're not going to be at London on Monday morning, the

training ground has burnt down. And I... He said it was Arsene. Is said,

you're kidding me. Because I knew the gaffer didn't like the training

ground. We were treated like kings. I remember going in the players

lounge, they are all standing around, like they'd... Like there

had been a death in the family. They said he's shut the bar, there is no

more alcohol in the players lounge. Tony Adams had a lot to do with it,

Tony Adams studied, everyone else let Tony get on with what he was

doing as long as he was playing. Wenger came in and helped him. Tony

would say... Saved his life, listen to him and really helped him. After

training normally it would be the quickest and quickest out, a big

drinking culture at the club. A crowd of seven or eight of the lads

that would call it a liquid lunch, we would have lunch as quickly as we

could. When Arsene Wenger came in he would take us, we'd go into a

private room at Saltwell house and stretch. The guys would take

themselves, Tony, Nigel, Arsene Wenger put three or four years on

their careers. Everyone seems to get this impression that what Wenger did

differently was treated like adults and everything explained to you

properly, if you're going to take these vitamins, this is the effect

it will have. If you drink, this is what it'll do to you. If you're

going to stretch this is how it affects you on match day. Let me

throw a spanner in the miracle work. It's under label that Wenger

revolutionised the way British football is conducted at the sharp

end in terms of the science and doctors and so on, the diet, no

alcohol. I do think people overlook how many very good footballers

Arsene Wenger inherited. Dennis Bergkamp, Martin Keown, Ian Wright,

David Seaman, toady Adams. Twitch Tony Adams. Nigel Winter burnt,

Patrick Vieira. These are all very good footballers. Only Patrick

Vieira was one Wenger had any part in bringing in. I'm not diminishing

the Wenger magic. Feels like you are. I'm putting it into historical

perspective. Lots of the problems he's had in later years have been

because he hasn't had good enough players. He inherited a fantastic

group of players who were amazing in the double season but he also

brought Vieira, completely down to him. And the left back who came in

and made an amazing partnership. Marc Overmars who took the Premier

League by storm. Nicholas and Alta. Players that go on and win the World

Cup season later. Would the double have happened without the new

welding with the old? I don't underestimate the sheer volume of

very good players he had on the books.

COMMENTATOR: Thierry Henry ?! Could they now be heading for

invincibility and immortality? Arsenal, the champions, unbeatable

from start to finish. And we move on to the invincibles

period. The pinnacle, some might say of his 20 years.

And that is a very special period of football that Arsenal had there?

When you saw how good The Invincibles were, I would watch them

for 10 to 15 mens of a football match, it could be Knill, and then

in the space of ten minutes it would be 4-0. Amazing. What I remember

most is when Wenger won at White Hart Lane. I was in the Spurs

boardroom with Lord Sugar. After, everyone had gone. In walked Arsene

Wenger and Pat Rice, I remember thinking I would never love any man

as much as I loved this guy right now. The most extraordinary thing to

have happened to Arsenal Football Club.

He said it was his life's dream, going a season unbeaten. That was

not what people wanted, you wanted to win the league, to be a top

cancerer... But there was pressure. Everybody was targeting us. The year

that we did do it, it went under the radar but an idea that Wenger

developed the year before. Something he wanted to achieve.

He thought it possible when nobody else thought it worth chasing,

because he is a perfection mist. He looked at the dressing room and

realised that with the players there, he had characters, he had

Pearce, players with flair, defenders that wanted to defend. A

world-class goalkeeper, he looked at the team and probably thought, for

the first time in my managerial career, I could go unbeaten.

There were players that were refusing to be beaten.

Thierry Henry, he was a shy player, he lacked in confidence. What he

grew into, it was unbelievable. He on his own. He had such quality and

Patrick Vieira, a massive driving force.

There were a lot of leaders in that team. A lot of strong characters.

And remember, Gabby, Wenger won the league three times in that

eight-year period against that fantastic Manchester United team. He

revolutionised everything. And yet the problem now for all of those who

fell in love with Wenger like me, is that it is just not the same.

And Amy, the press at this time. The marvellous head-to-head we would

have in the press conferences with Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson, was

it a joy to cover this period? It was a golden era to have two

heavyweights. We have become used to the Premier League being more mixed

in terms of who is up there competing and the top four thing

going on. But back then for about six years, it was Arsenal v

Manchester United. The north against the south, it was a real

heavy-weight no holds barred collision. It was totally

captivating. In time they realised that they had more in common. I

think that Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson like and respect each

other warmly now. What people forget is that we had to

be the stadium. We had to create money. I went for a challenge to

build a new stadium without dropping out of the Champions Leaguement we

made it, I felt I had done my job in a committed and a faithful way.

So, conveniently, this 20-year period can be sliced in the middle,

almost the before and the after. And it is ironically, one of his

passionate projects, the building of the Emirates, the moving of the

library, where the landscape turned and the trophies became harder to

come by. I preferred Highbury. The inmateness

of the stadium. But could you survive in the modern

era without what you have now? I felt we lost a lot of things.

I felt it lost heart. If you buy the best players and

maintain the Premier League and maintain the level of performance

but actually the opposite happened. I'm not sure if you asked now, if

you asked the fans would you watch Highbury or The Emirates, most would

say that they prefer warming in Highbury.

You look aggrieved? I'm in the Arsene Wenger camp. There is lots

that aren't. Last year there were pockets of fans putting up banners,

Wenger out. All of this. I was quite disgusted by it. I voiced my opinion

about that. That they should not be doing that. A lot of the money has

gone into the stadium. I think he has made some mistakes, yes. I think

he let players' contracts run down. Van Persie.

He should have been sacked for that alone. You send the captain and best

player to the number one rivals and they win the league and he wins the

golden boot! Are we kidding each other #1k4r57 Ferguson rang Arsene

Wenger himself. He did the deal on the phone. He said to him $24

million for Van Persie. He said, OK, take my caps and best triker, a

dereliction of duty by an Arsenal manager. But the bottom line is that

it has not been good enough in terms of trophies won but more than

acceptable to the owners. I agree with you... Because of the

money he is making for the camp. When Thierry Henry left to he was

literally saying to the players you are not winning the Champions League

here. It made me feel sad for that to happen. Then for Robin Van Persie

to go to Manchester United and score the goals that he did, they won the

league with his goals. Manchester United fans were saying

that they would have but I don't think so. I think somewhere along

the line Arsene Wenger got soft on that.

This is a problem now. A generation of Arsenal fans who have not tasted

the success of being champions. 12 years. There is a growing unrest.

The older fan has been brought up on the brand of football, the Arsenal

way. That they are respectful to Arsene Wenger.

You should not talk with disrespect. While he is there, he decides, not

you. Why? Because he has earned the right

to do that with the success on the pitch and how he managed the club

since. Who is to say he is not right to

have done what he did. Give me a number, how many more years, if it

is left to Arsene Wenger to decide, if he carries on not winning the

league or a championship final, and what pony do you guys, I understand

why you love him, I loved him too but how many more years as a

manager, do you give him before he gets sacked? I would give him three

years simply because I think... He has put a lot of faith into a lot of

squads that let him down. They have let him down badly.

Three more years? What happens if we come third or fourth? We won't do

that. Should Arsene Wenger sign a new

contract. He may be offered one but should he say that his time is up?

He should be the one in control of that decision? It's the same as it

has ever been. Each time a contract renewal comes about, there have been

many, the only person that makes that judgment call looks in the

mirror, and it is Arsene Wenger. Why? Why should he be the own person

in the world to sign his on contract.

He is the last emperor in football. You ask Alex Ferguson or Jose

Mourinho, how do you fancy coming third and fourth for 12 years, they

would laugh at you. Going forward, this season, there is

a feel-good factor in Emirates and the team, he has added well in it

weres of Lukasz, in terms of a new contract he has to challenge this

season. COMMENTATOR: Sensational goal.

Sanchez, back to Ozil. It does. It is the stuff of Arsenal dreams.

Let's talk in terms about his legacy. If he was to go? The legacy?

When you think of the legacy, I curse I did not have more time with

him. Would have loved to have been around him. It does hurt to the core

to not see us challenging but I will not sit here and not defend him for

I believe he is so great. What I will say, be careful if you are

being disrespectful to him. Once he is gone, you will realise, as much

as the FA Cups have been barren, he has taken the club global. The fact

is, Mark, that they were still singing that when we were playing

just before Arsene Wenger got there. It does seem a story of two acts.

The first act, he was revolutionary, bringing many things to Arsenal. The

second act is the big picture act. There is another kind of success, I

know by the stands he sets that the second half does not look successful

by most people's standards and his own. But in terms of what he has

done to the Football Club, I think there is much to admire in what has

been a complex second half of his career.

We were there when Arsene Wenger arrived at the Football Club. We

thought that he was big but you see it now around the world. Whoever

comes in next, it is the joy for the next manager, what he created, the

platform. If we had stayed at Highbury, as you had wanted to,

Piers, we would never have survived. We have secured the future, in doing

so, taken away some of the trophies. He could have been more greedy.

When you hear the respect for the guys that they have for Arsene

Wenger, that is an amazing legacy. The love and the devotion that many

great players have for Wenger is a testament to the style of football

he has alled tried to play. An amazing legacy on its own.

I don't think that we will be here in 20 years still talking about

Arsene Wenger but who knows? I would not put it past him.

?8 million a year, I think I would be there until I was 90.

I will leave you to chat on about Arsene Wenger's legacy and more but

let's take you back over the last seven days in the Premier League.

I have 23 players, you ask me why not play, I say what? COMMENTATOR:

He goes ? for goal. He gets it, Manchester

City are home. It is definitely helping my game. My

game and everyone else's game. Liverpool, 5, Hull City, 1.

Having led 2-0, Sunderland have been beaten in the final moments of the

game. It you can't always blame it on the

manager, the players have to take responsibility on the pitch.

Southampton are running away through... Oh, they have got it it

is four Premier League defeats in a row for West Ham.

With the header going in! Into the back of the net... Keane scores for

Burnley and doubles their lead! So, it's six out of six for Manchester

City, who are top, as Pepe Guardiola continue their perfect start.

West Ham and Stoke are firmly in the danger zone with each manager

feeling the heat. Join us on Wednesday the 12th of October.

10.00pm on BBC Two. If you miss any of the shows, you can always catch

up with them on iPlayer. Goodbye for now.