Journalist’s dismissive comments of Arsene Wenger’s influence aren’t being received very well

"I still to this day do not understand what it is that he did"

Arsene Wenger's influence on English football is well-known. The Frenchman arrived at Highbury in 1996 and immediately set about changing the club's culture of unhealthy eating and excessive drinking. The methods were questioned immediately but crucially, worked immediately as well. His teams were fitter and faster than most others and his approach to the game forced his rivals to modernise and improve as a result. This is all common knowledge and widely agreed upon, but it's not how Neil Ashton - the chief football reporter at The Sun - feels about the Frenchman's legacy in England. Speaking on beIN Sports in a segment which also featured former footballer Lee Dixon, Ashton played down Wenger's managerial methods in a rather scathing interview.

"I've never seen him as this great pioneer; other people put him on this extraordinary pedestal. I don't know what his methods were? He told players to eat pasta and drink more water. Italian football was doing that in the early 90s." "So Arsene Wenger coming into English football in the mid-90s saying, 'drink more water guys' and 'take more fluid on baord,' and 'eat better' and 'don't drink as much.' I still to this day do not understand what it is that he did to revolutionise English football."

The pasta remarks seem particularly peculiar since - while Italians were most definitely eating pasta in the 1990s (and presumably before that) - Arsenal were not and are not an Italian team and as such, Wenger's methods were at the very least new. Understandably, Arsenal fans did not react positively to Ashton's dismissive words and were quick to let him know exactly how they felt about his opinion. https://twitter.com/APowell2099/status/991334815709499392 https://twitter.com/Louisking1/status/991335444225974274 https://twitter.com/dazza__mac/status/991357758355189760 https://twitter.com/Five_against_1/status/991358051511750656 https://twitter.com/CaolanMahon/status/991398060977721344 https://twitter.com/Michael63532008/status/991387778117177344