Arsene Wenger: The Biography by Xavier Rivoire

Now Wenger has always been a very intriguing character to me. So when it came to choosing a book to take with me in a car trip from Glasgow to Rome and back, I picked ‘Arsene Wenger: The Biography’. By the way I was not driving.

It didn’t disappoint, the book goes from his early years growing up in Alsace, to struggling to make it as a footballer, to eventually finding his true vocation as a coach.

It follows this timeline taking in his coaching spells at Monaco and Grampus Eight and also his years at Arsenal up to them losing the Champions League Final in 2006. Each era is commented on by people close to Wenger at the time like ‘Max Hild’ his first mentor who he would go to Germany with to study their clubs methods and tactics.

The book goes into the the corruption that was rife in France during Wengers time in charge of Monaco and how he believed some of his players took bribes. It goes into how early Wenger was in introducing science  and diets to football. How he spotted and bought players like George Weah and Nicolas Anelka. How he surrounds himself with people he likes and trusts. How Clumsy he is, Tony Adams tells us a story of Wenger dropping a cake on the floor whilst talking to a coach and didn’t realize until he had sat down and tried to eat from an empty plate.

The book gives us a great insight behind a fantastic manager and well worth a read for anyone interested in how to manage a football club.

The book is available at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Arsene-Wenger-Biography-Xavier-Rivoire/dp/1845132769

Posted on April 2nd, 2010 by scott
Filed under: Book Review, Product Review