Why were the defenders who apparently should have been replaced in 1997 still winning titles five years later? Afterwards, Wenger asked his father what they’d been talking about and received the reply, in effect, “No idea, I could hardly understand a word he was saying”. It will illuminate the mystique surrounding one of the most revered and respected managers, revealing the wisdom and vision that made him an icon in the world's most popular sport.

As a card-carrying fan of Arsene Wenger, I was surprised to discover after reading the book, that I had found it somewhat disappointing. In fact, it was a cigarette and decent English skills from his months spent in Cambridge as a twenty-nine-year-old that got him an invite to David Dein’s house where a most enduring friendship began because of Arsene’s skillful charades rendition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream! He offers studious reflections on the game and his groundbreaking approach to motivation, mindset, fitness and football that was often beautiful to watch. There really is only one Arsène Wenger, and for the very first time, in his own words, this is his story! Pangloss, at least Arsene after 22 years had a better grasp of the English language than Emery had after one.

How did Wenger and his team manage to prise young talents such as Cesc Fà bregas, Henry and Vieira away from clubs like Barcelona, Juventus and AC Milan? Since his retirement, I’ve followed him via his commentary and analyst work for beIN Sports, because I missed listening to his thoughts.

Yet, through the way such achievements are described, the reader is left in no doubt as to Wenger’s ultra-competitive nature. He follows up with a list of notable players that he brought in over the years – Ljungberg, Gilberto, Arshavin, Ramsey, Gallas, Sagna, Vermaelen, Walcott, Mertesacker, Fabianski, Clichy, Gibbs, Coquelin, Szczesny, Cygan, Senderos and Kanu.For years Arsene said he'd talk about all the goings on and things he chose not to disclose while at Arsenal after he retired. There’s a lot of interesting stuff in this chapter about Japanese culture – I liked the story about how Wenger saved his interpreter’s job – but this review is getting far too long. Think Jeffers, Podolski, Pérez, Baptista, etc… Youtube compilations have aggravated that tendency to see potential signings as superstars.

I would have been interested to know how things might have been organised differently in Wenger’s latter years to avoid some of the problems that became evident – maybe the lengthy description in chapter 9 of the way the game has changed might be an oblique admission that he had too much influence in the club, but there are many other statements of the importance Wenger attaches to a manager being involved in everything about a club.Wenger’s decision to eliminate the negative leaves a book that disappoints as an account of football management, if we view the football manager as the most important person at any club . The friendship, complicity and understanding between David and me date from that first dinner, and from all the times we’ve seen each other since. Some of our larger items are dispatched using a courier service due to their size, weight and value. Perhaps a description from chapter 4 of his relationship with the Monaco players tells us a little about what Wenger misses most from the old days: “It was possible for us to talk. My Life in Red and White: My Autobiography by Ars ène Wenger, translated by Daniel Hahn and Andrea Reece, is published by Orion Publishing, and is out now.

Seller sent me a completely different item to that which was listed, a cheap fruits of the loom hat with wonky embroidery. You are largely writing on here to a whole group of card-carrying fans of AW ( me very much included) but I bet everyone who has read the book will be disappointed . Every time I met him I was struck by how ambitious he was for the club but oddly he was very anti building a new ground preferring to move to Wembley . At Monaco, his last job in Europe before Arsenal, he discovered George Weah, once the greatest player in the world, now president of Liberia, and won the French league in his first season.

The printed lines and colours of the many intricate patterns on our Certificate of Authenticity are sharp, clear and free of smudges or blurred edges. For the man from Alsace, what matters still are the “game and the people who love it, those moments of grace that football offers to those who love it and who give it their all. He and Wenger while nothing like Clough and Taylor personally worked in the same sort of way in that their skills complemented each other .