‘One example that sums up Wenger’s approach to money – and the impact he had on Arsenal – came when the club were trying to buy the training facility off London University, having rented there for some time. Seeing a deal to be done, Wenger instead went to the farmer who owned the land next door and bought the lot for half the price!’
Thursday marks 20 years to the day that Arsene Wenger was appointed as manager of Arsenal Football Club.
Because the Frenchman has reached such a milestone, more or less every media publication in the country has been looking back on his time at the club.
Whereas we challenged you to name every member of Wenger’s first ever match day squad, the Daily Mail invited its readers to ask columnist and former Arsenal player Martin Keown some questions about his ex-boss.
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Asked by one reader if he felt Wenger had changed over the years, Keown explained that while he didn’t think he had, the lack of Premier League success in the years since the Invincibles season of 2003/2004 had surprised him.
Expanding on his answer, Keown eventually discusses Wenger’s approach to signing players, suggesting that he would only spend the kind of fees spent by some Premier League clubs if an order was given by the Arsenal board.
‘Wenger is a very pragmatic man, and I would love to see him throw his economic principles out of the window for one season and see what happened. But this will never happen. For him to spend like Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United do, it would have to come as an order from the board.’
To highlight Wenger’s approach to spending money, Keown ends by sharing an anecdote about the time the 66-year-old negotiated a deal with a farmer to buy land for the club’s training ground.
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