FORMER ARSENAL BOSS RECALLS 'TENSE EXCHANGES OF VIEWS' WITH REFEREES

Arsene Wenger - indignation

WHAT was the attitude of Arsene Wenger to referees and refereeing during his long spell at the helm or Arsenal?

Curt, at best, judging by his recently-published autobiography, My Life in Red and White, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

He writes: "My relationships with referees were quite distant.

 "I tended to start out with an open mind imagining that the refereeing would be fair and impartial, but I did often find myself confronted with really flagrant refereeing mistakes."

He continues: "I did sometimes lose my cool and had tense exchanges of views with certain referees and got penalised for that. 

"I got myself sent off a few times.

 "But when the mistake was too obvious and had such huge consequences, I could not hold back my indignation."

The book contains a photograph of him in the stands - surrounded by Manchester United fans (!) - having been dismissed from the dug-out following a particularly fiery incident at Old Trafford. 

Did he mellow over the years? He does not admit to such but says "today refereeing has been very much taken in hand". 

He explains: "The people now doing the job are professionals who have been through very thorough and demanding training."

Wenger is one of the architects  of VAR which has proved highly controversial since its introduction.

However, he is unrepentant, claiming that the technology has "made it possible to guide refereeing better, to make the decisions fairer".

The book is refreshingly free of the catty tittle-tattle and  settling of old scores that is commonplace in the autobiographies of many sports celebrities.

Wenger, now football analyst for an overseas broadcaster and head of global development at FIFA, talks candidly about his upbringing in France's Alsace region, where his parents ran a village bistro, and about his progression to the top (which included management spells at top clubs in France and Japan).

During  his time coaching in Japan, he took to wearing a suit and, at Arsenal, he retained this practice.

He notes: "It was all about wanting to embody the club, to make the supporters proud, to respect the opponents and to avoid sloppiness in everything we did."

He has always been a staunch advocate of statistics and science, as part of performance analysis, but he acknowledges recent  studies which indicate that "players are demoralised by too great a use of statistics, no doubt because they feel their individuality is lost in the process".

So he emphasises that  "a deep knowledge of the game" is equally, if not more, important.

A self-confessed sore loser, he illustrates this point with a revealing observation: "When coach at Monaco, I had an apartment with the most beautiful view of the bay, but if I lost a match I didn’t see it.

"In Japan, I had a comfortable apartment but the window in my bedroom looked out on a wall, yet, if I won a match, the wall would look like the most beautiful view in the world."

Also illuminating is his comment about the importance of humility.

Says he: "Humility in sport is knowing that past performance gives you credibility, but it does not confer any privileges.

"Humility is the only thing that enables you to maintain the degree of vigilance that is essential for remaining steadfast."

Wenger, who spends his time between homes in London, Paris and Zurich,  reveals that he has always adhered to a strict personal discipline of rising at 5.30am each today, then spending two hours in the gym.

Might he be tempted by a return to UK football?

Possibly. Despite the challenges of life in the commentary  box and as an administrator, it is clear reading between the lines, that he misses both Arsenal and the excitement of the Premier League.

My Life in Red and White  has a list price of £25, but it has recently been available for as little as £10 at some large supermarkets.