Wenger was born in 1949, in Strasbourg on the French border with Germany.
He was brought up in a series of small towns in Alsace, where his parents ran a bistro,
locals helping to raise him in a communal atmosphere he once likened to a kibbutz.
A midfielder in his playing days, Wenger’s career on the pitch never really soared, and
by his late 20s when he was with RC Strasbourg, attention had turned to coaching.
After an apprenticeship coaching the Strasbourg youth teams and a spell as assistant at Cannes,
he was appointed Nancy manager in 1984.
Despite being relegated in his final season, he moved from Nancy to Monaco in 1987, and
that was where his reputation really grew.
With players like Glenn Hoddle, Patrick Battiston, Mark Hateley and Claude Puel, they won Ligue
1 by six points in his first season.
In the summer of 1994 Bayern Munich tried to recruit Wenger: he wanted to go, but Monaco
refused to release him, only to sack him after a poor start to the following season.
A couple of so-so years in Japan as Nagoya Grampus Eight manager followed, before the
Arsenal job came up.
Johan Cruyff was the front-runner, but the club’s then vice-chairman David Dein favoured
a man who he had invited to dinner in 1989, after Wenger had visited to watch an Arsenal
game.
That night Wenger joined in with a game of charades, and Dein began to believe in fate.
“I was convinced Arsene would become our manager from the first day I met him,” he
later said.
“I tried to watch the Tottenham match on television in my hotel yesterday, but I fell
asleep,” Wenger said on his appointment, ingratiating himself early on.
But from the start, some players were suspicious.
No foreign manager had ever won the English league title, and he began to change things:
diet, discipline, and an increasing number of French players began arriving.
Remi Garde, Gilles Grimandi, Emmanuel Petit, Patrick Vieira and Nicolas Anelka all arrived
in his first couple of years, but he kept the famous back four that had become so watertight
under George Graham.
This mix of the old and new proved wildly successful: Arsenal won the league in his
first full season, going on an extraordinary unbeaten run in which they only dropped six
points in 18 games, culminating in a thrashing of Everton that secured the title.
Manchester United had been such heavy favourites that one bookmaker had paid out on them winning
the league with two months left.
Arsenal added the FA Cup to that title, but the following seasons were dominated by Manchester
United, as Arsenal struggled to reach the same levels.
"If you eat caviar every day it's difficult to return to sausages,” said Wenger after
the adverse reaction to one defeat.
But by 2001 he had again built a team that could destroy sides, featuring the brilliance
of Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry, Robert Pires and Freddie Ljungberg.
Once again, things were slightly sketchy until December, but following a defeat to Newcastle
just before Christmas, they didn’t lose another game all season.
Sylvain Wiltord scored the goal at Old Trafford to secure the league, a few days after a second
double had been won by beating Chelsea in the FA Cup final.
Then came the Invincibles season.
Before the 2003/04 campaign Arsenal only made one significant signing, Jens Lehmann replacing
David Seaman, but 26 games were won, 12 drawn and none lost.
They clinched the title at White Hart Lane, but little did anyone know that it would never
be that good again.
The following 14 years would see some moments of success - four more FA Cup wins, the Champions
League final, European qualification every year - but ultimately disappointment.
The costs of their new stadium were blamed for a lack of spending in the transfer market,
eventually their best players left and dispiriting defeats became more and more predictable.
Wenger should probably have bowed out much earlier.
But he clung on, to the point that he will leave Arsenal lower down in the table than
when he found them.
He goes with good wishes, but the question now is what he does next.
“Ferguson has his horses - I don’t have horses,” he once said, when asked if he
would retire.
This is a man consumed by football - hopefully, after leaving Arsenal, he isn’t lost, with
or without
the game.