Arsène Wenger was in born 22 October 1949 in Strasbourg, France. Wenger played as a defender when he was at the Institut Européen d'Etudes Commerciales Supérieures de Strasbourg of Robert Schuman University. He has only made 12 appearances for RC Strasbourg where he won the French League 1 title in 1978-79 seasons. In 1996 he was appointed as the coach of Arsenal FC from London. He made his immediate impact the following year by winning the League and Cup double. His introduction of foreign players in the Premier league seemed to be creating wonders. His first French player to be signed was none other than the Senegal born French defensive midfielder Patrick Viera for £3.5 million from Milan where he appeared only twice.
Before Milan, Patrick Viera played for Cannes in which he had 49 appearances with only 2 goals to his credit. He stayed in Arsenal from 1996 to 2005 and then he departed for Juventus, Italy. Arsène Wenger turned an average “French” player and made him a superstar in France and England. Nicolas Sebastien Anelka was signed by Arsène Wenger for £500,000 . He had just 10 appearances and scored just a solitary goal for Paris Saint-Germain. He left Arsenal in just 2 years for Real Madrid. His French signing continued with the young and again not so well known Gilles Grimandi. Gilles had more appearances than Patric Viera. Before signing for Arsenal he made 90 appearances for AS Monaco but scored just a couple of goals.
For Arsenal , he played for five years but was in and out of the team and hence only 114 appearances with just 4 goals. If you are an Arsenal fan and may be wondering where currently Arsène Wenger is getting all these young French talent in Arsenal. Gilles Grimandi is the Arsenal's scout in France. He was not a good player but was appointed as a scout by Wenger and Arsenal.
Another French defensive midfielder Emmanuel Petit from AS Monaco for £2.5m. He had the most experience than his previous French signings. He had 222 appearances for AS Monaco with 4 goals. Petit, with his fellow French team mate Patrick Viera made a solid midfield which won Arsenal the double.
After 85 appearances and 11 goals, Petit left for Barcelona Spain along with Marc Overmars. In 1999 Arsène Wenger signed a very young Thierry Daniel Henry from Juventus for £10.5 million. Henry was a player who failed in Italy and scored only 20 goals for Monaco in 105 appearances. Another French player, but this time a striker. This proved to be the best French signing of Arsène Wenger. Henry terrorized defenses. He scored a record 226 (174 goals in the Premiere League) goals which surpassed Ian Wright as the most goals scored by a player in all tournaments for Arsenal in 369 appearances in all. Henry was in Arsenal since 1999 and in 2007 he got transferred to 2009 UEFA champions Barcelona.
Robert Emmanuel Pirès was signed for £6 million in 2000, after a troublesome couple of years in Marseille. He was mainly brought from the French club to replace Marc Overmars of Holland. Pirès scored 62 goals in 189 appearances which was a good achievement for a mid-fielder at that point of time. In 2006, Pirès joined Villarreal CF of Spain. Sylvain Wiltord’s equalizer against Italy in the Euro 2000 final had convinced Arsène Wenger to sign him for a club record £13 million (and the French factor too) .
Only 32 goals in 104 appearances did not convince the Arsenal and Premiere League viewers. After a 4 year spell in Arsenal he left for France to join Lyon. Gaël Clichy was number seven to come to the London club. Clichy was the least experienced player in the entire squad when he joined Arsenal with only 15 games under his belt with French club Cannes. He was brought to Highbury to replace the injured Ashley Cole. With no International nor top flight experience, Clichy replaced Ashley Cole for the left back position.
A very risky but calculated French move by Arsène Wenger. If Clichy played only 15 games of first flight football then Wenger next signing played only 14 games for Marseille. He is none other than Mathieu Flamini from France (of course).
Flamini was switched from a defensive mid-field role to a back due to injuries of regular defender. In 2008 he decided to move to Milan, Italy. In 2006 Wenger brought in three French players, Vassiriki Abou Diaby, Armand Traoré from Auxerre and Monaco from France and the third he did not look far but at a French player in London named William Éric Gallas. Gallas had joined Chelsea in 2001 from Marseille.
He was Arsène Wenger’s tenth French signing and that’s the reason he wore the number 10 shirt (Now we all know why Wenger gave him the no. 10 shirt) which was worn by the former Arsenal man, Dennis Bergkamp. The most experience among all his French signings. Gallas was then handed over the Arsenal captains arm band which created a lot of criticism from team members and English press respectively. Gallas is third year running with Arsenal and is gunning for more years.
In 2007, Bacary Sagna and Lassana Diarra joined the mighty puissant Arsenal . Sangna, a right back from Auxerre was bought by Arsenal for £7.45m. The Next season when the transfer window opened, everyone was waiting for Wenger next new signing. Since every year he needs to add at least one French player to the squad.
Wenger adds four of them Francis Coquelin , Samir Nasri, Amaury Bischoff and the injured Mikaël Silvestre from Manchester United (Sir Alex Ferguson would have been jumping with joy to sell an injured player). So far Arsène Wenger has signed 18 inexperienced French players. Tell me something , aren’t there better young English players who can play for Arsenal or is it just the French whom Arsène Wenger can work better with and get results from? Wenger has done nothing for English football but made it worse for aspiring English players who would love to play for Arsenal and England.
On the other hand he has made the French Team even stronger and given opportunities to unknown faces outside England. Ironically the Arsenal logo has the French colors (Red-White-Blue) on it. I am sure English players who were on the reserves or the youth academy of Arsenal, will definitely feel the pain whenever they seen Wenger singing a young French player instead of them. England wouldn’t have had the likes of David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, John Terry, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard or Gareth Barry if they were in Arsenal due to Arsène Wenger’s French Connection.
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