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The Glorious Game: Arsene Wenger, Arsenal and the Quest for Success
Alex Fynn and Kevin Whitcher draw upon times spent behind the scenes at Highbury to piece together an intimate portrait of both the man at the helm, Wenger, and life at the only Premiership club with a chance of challenging the Old Trafford hegemony. The Glorious Game looks back to Arsene Wenger's arrival at the club, studies his philosophy of football, examines Arsenal's underachievement in Europe, and their continuing battle for English supremacy with Manchester United. It also features interviews and profiles of the key individuals at Highbury—from Wenger and David Dein, through to the likes of Thierry Henry, Sol Campbell, Liam Brady, and Bob Wilson.
- GenresFootball
256 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2003
25 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 3, 2020
Despite not being a big fan of football (soccer) I thought I would read this book on the basis of the sub-title: “Arsène Wenger, Arsenal and the quest for success”. Perhaps it would be a more serious, in depth view of what makes a football club successful. Well it was, but only in the last two chapters. Far too much of the rest was made up of brief match reports and snippets of interviews with players, the sort of stuff you need to be a dedicated fan to enjoy.
Occasionally the authors slip into sports journalistic mode and come out with remarks such as: “[Martin Keown, a former Arsenal player] continues to live in Oxford...and as an example of his prudent ways he has become like Soames Forsythe, a man of property,” or “[Patrick Vieira, another player] seemed to have telescopic legs that allowed him to win balls that he had no right to.”
It's disappointing because, as the authors describe at the end of the book, Arsenal was going through a period of severe financial difficulties during Arsène Wenger's time as manager, mainly due to the proposed construction of a new stadium and its spiralling costs. How Wenger coped and produced teams capable of winning the Premier League and FA Cup with such limited resources is far more interesting than being told of some highly paid starlet booting the ball in the net for a winning goal on a rainy night in Middlesborough.
Occasionally the authors slip into sports journalistic mode and come out with remarks such as: “[Martin Keown, a former Arsenal player] continues to live in Oxford...and as an example of his prudent ways he has become like Soames Forsythe, a man of property,” or “[Patrick Vieira, another player] seemed to have telescopic legs that allowed him to win balls that he had no right to.”
It's disappointing because, as the authors describe at the end of the book, Arsenal was going through a period of severe financial difficulties during Arsène Wenger's time as manager, mainly due to the proposed construction of a new stadium and its spiralling costs. How Wenger coped and produced teams capable of winning the Premier League and FA Cup with such limited resources is far more interesting than being told of some highly paid starlet booting the ball in the net for a winning goal on a rainy night in Middlesborough.
Displaying 1 of 1 review