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Arsene Wenger's Invincibles had us laughing in wonder, now Arsenal's greatest chapter deserves perfect ending

Invincibles: Arsenal won 26 and drew 12 of their 38 league matches in 2003-04: Arsenal FC via Getty Images
Invincibles: Arsenal won 26 and drew 12 of their 38 league matches in 2003-04: Arsenal FC via Getty Images

It was the season of The Invincibles and the sound you often heard in the old wooden press box at Highbury was that of laughter.

There are always one-liners buzzing around these little citadels of the newspaper trade, as it still was back then. The inhabitants specialise in gallows humour, too.

This was different. This was a reaction to events on the pitch.

It was an involuntary and instantaneous and, basically, it was the first and most natural way the reporters gathered in that lovely old place found to express their admiration for Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal and the heights to which they elevated football in that fabulous, undefeated nine months.

What else could you do but burst out guffawing at the wonder and the joy and the glory of it all. The words could come later.

This, after all, was the most exciting, attractive and decorative team ever to play the game in England. And somehow, it just seemed right to respond in this way to the brilliance of Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Robert Pires and Co.

Not Ha Bloody Ha. But Ha Bloody Hell. Brilliant. Quite brilliant.

There will be thousands of tributes to the great man now that he is departing from the club he re-built and transformed.

I am fortunate and privileged to have the memory re-counted here – among so many - as my own way of cherishing what Wenger did in this adoptive land, in which he revolutionised the game as well as his club.

His courtesy, intelligence and dignity will stand out as a beacon of what he stood for, too; although his repeated departures for the stands at the behest of offended referees and officials was proof that he was actually as irascibly, uncontrollably and frustratedly human as the rest of us as well.

The protesters have got what they wanted and yes, it is the right time for him to depart. Absolutely nothing lasts for ever in sport.

It may have taken him some time to come to terms with this. But then he would never have achieved what he did without a vein-deep sense of belief and mission and an utter conviction that his way was the right way. And doesn’t that make the insults and abuse he has received in recent terms – as opposed to the reasoned debate about where he was going wrong – look so tawdry and cheap right now?

My urgent memo to the football gods is that they have an absolute duty to ensure now that he bows out by winning the Europa League in his French homeland in May.

He has lost three European finals as a coach – two with Arsenal and one with Monaco. Football isn’t about getting what you deserve. It's about what you win. But what the hell, Wenger really does deserve such a triumphant finish.

That season of the Invincibles – 14 years ago now – was the last time Arsenal won the title.

(Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
(Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Just as Wenger had wrought an uprising in the Premier League after his arrival in 1996 – with three titles, two Doubles and some of the most uplifting and exhilarating football this country has known following in the next eight years – so a new wave of change assaulted and eventually overtook him.

He characterised the wealth of Chelsea and Manchester City as “financial doping.” And in the later years of struggle to make an impact at the very top, Wenger seemed to be on a personal crusade to prove that he could yet defy these injections of “un-earned” wealth and win the title again his way.

He failed. But lo and behold, Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham find themselves targetting the FA Cup this Spring as the only prize they can win. It makes Wenger’s three triumphs in the previous four seasons look a bit more impressive than some had it at the time, doesn’t it? As so-called Wilderness Years go, it's not half bad.

With what now looks like impeccable timing, a TV documentary to be shown on Monday night will recall the epic years of battle between Wenger’s Arsenal and Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United between 1996 and 2004. In that time, nobody else won the title.

Wenger’s team was tough as well as dynamic in those days. He added big, imposing physical players like Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit to a defensive core led by Tony Adams which was already established.

Bergkamp had been signed in the year before Wenger’s arrival. But they were made for each other. Most of all, he epitomised the intelligence, geometric understanding and refinement of the brand of football this Arsenal side made its trademark, allying it to a superb athleticism and a will and spirit self-generated by the sheer fabulousness of what they were able to perform.

Then, Wenger’s own most significant act of recruitment was to bring Henry to Highbury. With his own touch of irascible humour and quirkiness to add to all his fabulous talents and instincts, Henry was the player who summed up best of all the joy of watching the Gunners in those days.

In the later years, Wenger veered away from employing this physicality and favoured smaller, less imposing players he thought could engineer the way through opposition defences.

Again, it seemed he had a point he stubbornly wished to prove.

At its best – Jack Wilshere’s memorable goal against Norwich in 2013 – it was wonderful to behold, too.

But its success was intermittent. There was more muscle, pace and strength coursing through rival sides who, for a time, out-stripped Arsenal in the transfer market and bought simply better and bigger players as well.

The irony was that Arsenal lost the raging competitiveness which will be detailed in Monday’s documentary. It was glimpsed only fleetingly. This is what infuriated the club’s unsettled fans most of all as they berated Wenger over the loss of his powers.

Now those fans had better prepare themselves for a further period of what they might perceive as under-achievement. Whatever has happened in recent times, no club moves into a new era after being under the command of such a dominant figure for so long without unsettlement and trauma. Manchester United has been the perfect example since Ferguson retired in 2013.

That is why I believe they need a big experienced and successful figure like Carlo Ancelotti to take over now.

The big, revolutionary move with the young, hipster boss should be the step after the next one – although the growing German influence at the club suggests it might come first, with Thomas Tuchel and Julian Nagelsmann of Hoffenheim said to be on the radar.

Wenger won’t retire. Does the French national team job beckon after the World Cup?

Certainly, he made a very profound point a few months back when, under a tide of abuse and criticism, he pointed out that he had turned down just about every big job in the game to guide Arsenal through the seasons of financial challenge which followed the move from Highbury to the new Emirates Stadium in 2006.

When it opened, I suggested, with a touch of smart-arsery, that it should be called Wengerville. It sounded nice and French although by then, he was really one of us.

Now there will be some fetid weeks and an emotional farewell. The last home game will be against Burnley on May 6. Before that, West Ham fans will surely have the good sense to laud him along with the home supporters in north London this Sunday.

It seems, too, that the football gods might already have been at work. Wenger’s last scheduled game in charge is the Premier League fixture on May 13 at Huddersfield Town.

Wenger will manage his final Premier League game at Huddersfield
Wenger will manage his final Premier League game at Huddersfield

It was from there that Herbert Chapman arrived at Arsenal in 1925 and began the work which made them the dominant team of the 1930s.

Wenger has surpassed him to be the club’s greatest ever manager. There would be serendipity of a kind if it was at Huddersfield that he said goodbye.

Much better, though, that the last stand is in the Europa League final in Lyon on May 16. A triumph for Arsenal would be the perfect ending.