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Football

10th Jan 2017

The story of how Arsène Wenger killed Arsenal’s dressing room vibes with his playlist pick

He did it his way

Tom Victor

Whatever you say about Arsène Wenger, you can’t deny that he is a man who sticks to his principles.

The Arsenal manager is renowned for his reluctance to dip into the transfer market when he feels he has enough quality within his squad – and on occasion won’t even include recall clauses in loan deals.

However, it doesn’t end there. As Gunners midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain explains, Wenger’s principles extend to his musical choices, even when it results in square pegs in round holes.

Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images

Speaking to Kicca, Oxlade-Chamberlain has recalled how Wenger’s contribution to a squad-wide playlist didn’t exactly fit the mood – but would you really expect the Frenchman to compromise when there was an opportunity to get his players pumped up to the sound of… Frank Sinatra.

“I think it might have been Theo who went around and put everyone’s name in and got everyone to write in a song they wanted to hear,” the England midfielder said.

“They actually had a column for the boss and I think he threw in Frank Sinatra, and it’s actually come on in the dressing room – a great song, what an artist, but it really killed the vibes out there

“You can’t be listening to Frank Sinatra and then Rick Ross the next track. That was a nice idea from Theo, he meant well, but it didn’t last long – that’s very Theo.”

There was no word from Oxlade-Chamberlain about whether any of the Arsenal squad have put on former Gunner Lukas Podolski’s number one hit before a game. Surely it’s only a matter of time if not.