My Life in Red and White: The Sunday Times Number One Bestselling Autobiography

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These glimpses into the mind of one of football’s greatest innovators set it apart from the blander entries in the genre, and indeed are frequently compelling.

I think it was under-edited if anything, Unlike CER, I noticed a non-chronological flow to the book, which I found distracting.

My answer to the dinner guest question hasn’t changed and I won’t dissuade anyone from reading My Life and Lessons in Red and White. Wenger says that he still speculates on what the security men must have thought as he left the building at the end of the night carrying the trophy. Wenger has never been averse to introspection, and he is not in these pages, but he is clearly uncomfortable straying too far from the familiar shores of football. I only hope an unexpurgated draft is tucked away for later publication when the distance of time allows.

This is a man passionate about the beautiful game, many times even at the expense of his loved ones with whom he regrets not spending enough time but never the game that took him away from them. Although it was silly to think that Wenger would be indiscreet, I had hoped to get some insight into some of the more controversial transfers of the post-Invincible era (think Gilberto, van Persie, Fabregas) but the only hint I spotted was the remark about Cole in chapter 7 that I mention above. He even revealed in a recent interview that Manchester United approached him, but wouldn’t go into detail as to when. He also dropped interest in Griezmann after the lad had turned down umpteen offers to come to Arsenal .

Chapter 5 tells of Wenger’s time in Nagoya, where he came across players with a completely different cultural background. There’s a lot of interesting stuff about man-management and team building, but to be honest, nothing particularly new or startling. The answers, unfortunately, are either missing altogether from My Life in Red and White, or expressed in a way that is long familiar to us . Chapter 8 covers Arsenal’s move from Highbury to the new stadium finishing with a brief description of the 2006 Champions League final.