...for Arsene Wenger who has this week become the longest serving manager of Arsenal FC and on 22 October will celebrate his 60th birthday. Wenger joined Arsenal in 1996 and since then has won three Premiership titles and four FA Cups, but when he arrived at the old Highbury ground hardly anyone knew who he was or why he had been appointed. The Frenchman's previous assignment had been in Japan with Grampus Eight -- not the conventional stepping stone to Premiership football. From the start Wenger committed himself to a certain kind of football which in the mid-1990s was relatively rare In England; it depends on total ball control, inch-perfect passing and a fluidity of movement that puts defences in a spin. On a good day Wenger's vision can make even a hardened cynic believe that football is indeed the beautiful game.
Behind the scene Wenger has helped to make Arsenal FC a highly profitable club in a fine new stadium and has set an example by refusing to join the transfer market stampede, preferring instead to concentrate on bringing on young talent within the club.