THE GLORY GAME
THE SUMMER OF 2001 undoubtedly laid the foundations for a new era of success at Arsenal under Arsene Wenger. And yet, curiously, they had a very mixed – but expensive – time in the transfer market, which was telling in many ways. They bought Francis Jeffers for £8 million, Richard Wright for £6 million, Giovanni van Bronckhorst for £8.5 million and, the most eye-catching deal of all, Sol Campbell on a Bosman-style free transfer.
Campbell arrived from Tottenham – the ultimate transfer coup by Wenger, capturing their bitter rivals’ best player and captain, and persuading him to join Arsenal ahead of Inter Milan, Manchester United and Barcelona. It was a stunning transfer, a statement of intent, a signal that Arsenal were determined to get back to the top after three barren years.
Wenger, without question, also wanted to spend big to send a very clear message to some disaffected players. Henry was frustrated after the 2001 FA Cup final defeat. Perhaps even more telling in retrospect was Patrick Vieira’s angry outburst in April 2001 after Arsenal lost at Valencia in the Champions League and once again went out of Europe.
He could barely contain his annoyance after the game in Spain, and insisted he would not discuss or answer any more questions on his future at Arsenal, casting doubt over whether he was about to leave the club. The message was clear. Vieira, one of the most sought-after midfielders in Europe, was telling Wenger and Arsenal to improve the squad and make themselves competitive again. That summer, as much as in any year of the first half of Wenger’s reign, they really went for it in the transfer market.
When Campbell was unveiled to the press at the club’s training ground, there was a collective gasp of amazement when he walked through the door. It was a deal that stunned the English game and Campbell’s impact should not be underestimated. During his time at the club, Arsenal won the league and FA Cup Double, the FA Cup a further two times and the league title in the 2003/04 Invincibles season, as well as reaching the Champions League final in 2006.
In Campbell, they signed a giant who was as important during that era as any player, including Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira and Robert Pires. By contrast, the other deals were not successful. Van Bronckhorst suffered a cruciate knee ligament injury, which held him back, and he was sold without ever really establishing himself as an Arsenal regular.
Wright, a promising keeper who was capped by England and was briefly heralded as a potential successor to David Seaman, was signed from Ipswich, having played a blinder against Arsenal at Highbury, but he never fulfilled his potential at the club.
The other English signing was promising young striker Jeffers, whose career was hampered by injury and who was often blamed for putting Wenger off from signing English and British players for years to come. It’s difficult to blame a player when his career is dogged by injury. But a picture of the 2002 title-winning celebrations, which still takes pride of place at London Colney, has Jeffers – who played only six games in that campaign – at the front wearing a huge pair of joke sunglasses.
Funnily enough, though, Jeffers will never be forgotten because he was always saddled with the expectation of being the answer to Arsenal’s goalscoring problems and their search for a prolific striker. He was expected to be a goal poacher, the sort of clinical finisher Arsenal lacked among their spectacular strikers.
Jeffers was christened Arsenal’s ‘fox in the box’, after the phrase was coined following the 2001 FA Cup final. Arsenal dominated the game and should have had a penalty when Liverpool defender Stephane Henchoz handballed on the line. Arsenal went ahead late on through Freddie Ljungberg, only for Michael Owen to score twice in the last seven minutes to win the trophy.
Afterwards, in the mixed zone at the Millennium Stadium – where the players conduct media interviews – it was difficult to get any Arsenal player to say anything of note, such was their frustration. The best line was delivered by Thierry Henry to the French media: he said Arsenal needed a ‘renard sur le terrain’ – literally, fox on the pitch – which became ‘fox in the box’. In fact, Henry even adopted the saying himself, using the English version in interviews for years afterwards. Jeffers was signed to be the fox in the box, but it never worked out and, just over two years later, he rejoined Everton on loan.
But while Arsenal were struggling to find extra quality in the opposing box, they had signed a colossus in their own penalty area. Campbell was strong, powerful and typified the sort of physical specimen that Wenger was looking for in his team. Arsenal’s key men, like Campbell, Vieira and Henry, all fitted the new prototype of powerful athletes.
It was, though, a daring deal on Arsenal’s part. Campbell remembers that period so well. Arsenal’s vice-chairman David Dein was the key negotiator, convincing him to leave a club where he was captain and to join their biggest rivals. Tellingly, Campbell believes the chemistry between Wenger and Dein made them a perfect double act in the transfer market. Wenger would identify the player; Dein would charm the player and get the deal done.
Weeks and months went into recruiting Campbell from arch rivals Tottenham. Campbell had become disaffected and frustrated at White Hart Lane. Arsenal were ready to seize their opportunity as he was a free agent. Moving abroad would have been the easy option. But Dein was determined to convince Campbell that the hard option would be more rewarding – even if it threatened to widen the north London divide.
Campbell’s negotiations with Arsenal were held in secret at Dein’s house, where they would talk and talk. Campbell would insist on going to Dein’s house in the middle of the night because he was so obsessed with the press finding out. They would walk around Dein’s garden in the darkness, discussing the possible transfer.
Campbell is a deep thinker. Getting him onside and convincing him the time was right to leave Spurs was a huge challenge. It was Dein who finally persuaded Campbell to move to Arsenal in one of the most controversial deals in Premier League history. Campbell will be remembered by Arsenal supporters as a legend for, as they see it, doing the dirty on their fiercest rivals.
Campbell provides a fascinating insight into the dynamic of the Dein–Wenger relationship when it came to transfers, as Campbell recalls:
I didn’t see so much of Arsene, it was more David Dein. He was an excellent communicator. He knows how football runs. He can talk to chairmen, directors, managers, even canteen ladies. He’s got the human side as well. That was a big plus for me. Together, the two of them were so successful as a pair. David was like a sounding board for Arsene. They were so good together . . .
At Tottenham, I was running around covering for about three or four players, doing my own job as well and it’s great when you have got that trust, self-belief, belief in others and it spreads throughout the team. It involves the keeper as well. It’s not telepathic but you read certain positions. It comes with chemistry, understanding and a bunch of lads for whom it worked. It was great to be involved in an amazing team which was great both offensively and defensively.
The sad thing about Tottenham was that I had a lot of managers, far too many managers. At one stage, at the end, I was just running on talent. There was no structure, no philosophy in place. Someone else comes in and there’s a new philosophy in play. It was just like a revolving door. There was no persistent forward thinking . . .
One reason I went to Arsenal was the structure. There was a philosophy in play, a stable environment, but also a way of playing football as well. I fitted in really nicely and that’s the key. If you fit into a place with your type of mentality and playing style then you’re not going to have a problem. It suits you. Yes, it does help to have fantastic players, world-class players. I was part of that cog, you all fit together and make an amazing machine and that’s what we were: part of a machine. An organic machine, you know.
For me on a personal level, it had to work. I had no option. I had to win something. Massive move, lot of pressure, half of north London probably wishing it all goes horribly wrong. It had to work. I came in injured. I had to get over that, get into the team, and there were a lot of hurdles to get over. Ultimately, though, I was saying to myself: ‘It has to work; if it’s not your day, then you have to make it your day.’
The eyes inevitably turned to Campbell that season when Arsenal played Tottenham and, in particular, the ex-Spurs captain went back to White Hart Lane for the first time in November 2001. The Arsenal team bus had bricks thrown at it as it drove in and out of White Hart Lane – with home supporters hiding in an adjacent pub’s beer garden to throw their missiles – and the level of abuse towards Campbell was horrendous. Tottenham fans have never forgiven Campbell for what they see as his betrayal.
It was an unforgettable game that Campbell remembers with a mixture of pride and dread. He also recalls that Wenger was adamant that he should play, and there was never any question of him missing it with a diplomatic groin strain.
It’s funny, you see the hate in the people’s eyes. You see women, children, whoever, almost frothing at the mouth. They were burning effigies of me outside of the ground. I knew it was going to happen, but it went beyond a level that I could have imagined. It was so tight coming into the ground, then the car park opens up. I walked into the ground – and then went into the wrong dressing room! It was so funny. It was just a habit.
Everyone was looking at me. I made a point of warming up, and going to every corner of the ground. It was vile, it was disgusting, but I had to get on with it. Once I got changed, I ran to all four corners to adjust to what was going to happen to me, to hear everything that was going to be said to me. I went to all the edges to take it all in . . . I had a game plan. I was ready for it. But one thing that really stands out in my mind was the banners. But it was a tough game for me – not football-wise, but emotionally it was tough.
Arsenal drew at Tottenham that day, Pires’ late opener being cancelled out by Gus Poyet’s last-gasp leveller.
Campbell also has an interesting insight into Wenger’s football philosophy. With Lauren and Ashley Cole at full back, and a combination of Adams, Keown and Campbell in the centre, Arsenal had a rock-solid back four again and a wealth of brilliant attacking talent. But Campbell makes it clear that Wenger expected the players themselves to take a lot of responsibility for tactics. He felt he had enough quality, with players such as Pires, Bergkamp, Henry, Wiltord and Ljungberg, to be good enough to beat any opponent. Therefore, they didn’t need to rely so heavily on tactics or an inspirational substitution to change or a win a game. Basically, Wenger was of the opinion that it didn’t matter what the opposing team could do – Arsenal could do better. He adds:
[Wenger] puts a lot of onus on players to change the game. He believes in that. There is a structure within that. He wants to play a certain way. But he wants certain players – especially in the last third – to be able to produce it and give something different.
He’s looking for that magic. Everyone’s looking for that magic, but if you have three, four or five players going forward who have got that magic, then it’s great. It’s fantastic. It just keeps other teams on their toes; they don’t know whether they’re coming or going. They always know they’re going to be in a game because if . . . you’ve got two players heavily marked, then you’ve still got another two players free. That’s what you want: whoever you are playing against, they can’t lock you down and shut you out completely.
Wenger had once again found a team with a perfect rhythm: strong in defence, powerful and creative in midfield, and with wonderful attacking flair. Quietly and in an understated way, Wenger had built another Arsenal team and one which, as Campbell alluded to, had enough leaders in the ranks to ensure that the manager’s wishes and instructions were adhered to on the pitch. Wenger had also achieved it without radical change, as Campbell was the only significant signing from the summer of 2001 to really make a major impact on the team.
The players signed in 2000, the likes of Pires and Wiltord, had taken time to adapt and produce their best form, but they really kicked on in the 2001/02 season. Wiltord will always be remembered for scoring the winner at Old Trafford when Arsenal clinched the Premier League title. That was perhaps the best revenge possible for Arsenal losing the FA Cup semi-final to United in 1999 but, more than that, proof that Arsenal had reclaimed their place at the head of the English game.
It came after an impressive title run-in, in which Swedish midfielder Freddie Ljungberg was often the key figure as the team won their last 13 league games. He enjoyed a prolific spell, scoring seven goals in as many games on the way to the title, and he also scored in the FA Cup final win over Chelsea in May 2002.
Ljungberg remembers the period fondly: ‘It was the best time of my career, definitely. The most enjoyable, the time when I felt the best and the manager would give you a lot of confidence. Winning trophies are always highlights for every player. Also, the connection I have with Arsenal fans. That was something special for me. On a personal note, I won the Premier League Player of the Year award [in 2001/02]. That hasn’t happened to other Swedish players and was nice for me.’
At this time, Wembley was being rebuilt, and so trips to the Millennium Stadium for cup finals became a regular pilgrimage, with the lengthy traffic delays over the Severn Bridge living as long in the memory as the cup games themselves.
The FA Cup final of 2002 was particularly memorable because Arsenal beat Chelsea on a gloriously sunny Saturday – and then had a title decider at Old Trafford the following Wednesday when they knew victory over Manchester United would win them the Double. Wenger knew that a cup final win – no matter how much such an occasion took out of his players’ legs and minds – would be the key. He certainly didn’t want a repeat of 1999 and that demoralising FA Cup semi-final defeat.
It was a tight, tense final as Chelsea, still in the pre-Roman Abramovich era, had big players like Marcel Desailly, Frank Lampard and William Gallas. But Arsenal’s line-up that day looked formidable and highlighted their strength: Seaman; Lauren, Adams, Campbell, Cole; Wiltord, Parlour, Vieira, Ljungberg; Henry, Bergkamp. Arsenal were easily the best team in the country that season.
However, they still only managed to edge it with late goals, Ray Parlour breaking the deadlock after 70 minutes with one of the best goals of his career – a curling 25-yard shot into the top corner – and then Ljungberg continued his prolific run with a second ten minutes later. Parlour has vivid memories of the occasion:
That was probably the most important goal of my career. It was a really tough game against Chelsea. They were buying good players.
It was a weird week . . . To be honest, the lads were getting a bit tired, feeling a bit of fatigue. You never get tired when you’re playing in an FA Cup final. But we knew if we lost, that would make us feel tired.
I remember as a kid watching every cup final. Then to play in my first FA Cup final was a real honour; then to score in one was a dream to come true. I remember making a run. Thierry Henry made a great run, he took two defenders away from me, and then it was me and Desailly and all I really did was get the opportunity to bend it round him and hope for the best.
I used to score loads of them in the training! But not many in a game like that. It was so good to see it curl into the top corner. That was a great week for myself and a great week for Arsene Wenger as the manager. Roman Abramovich came in, put the money into Chelsea and that became a different battle. But they were such a good team even in that final and to beat them, then go to Old Trafford and win the league with one of our best performances away from home, was fantastic.
After that FA Cup final, Arsenal were buzzing. I remember getting the train from Euston up to Manchester for the game at Old Trafford on Wednesday 8 May 2002. Rarely do you go to a game at Manchester United with such a strong feeling that the away team will win. Arsenal were that strong, that dominant and that good. It didn’t seem in doubt. Victory looked inevitable.
Arsenal had to make changes, with Thierry Henry, Tony Adams and Dennis Bergkamp dropping out, but they were able to bring in Martin Keown, Edu and Kanu. United were fired up, and Paul Scholes, Phil Neville and Roy Keane were all lucky not to see red in a frantic opening 45 minutes. Sir Alex Ferguson was determined that United would not roll over. But Parlour recalls that night at Old Trafford as one of the best experiences of his career as Sylvain Wiltord scored the 55th-minute winner, pouncing on a rebound after Fabien Barthez saved from Ljungberg. Parlour said: ‘United were desperate, absolutely desperate, to beat us. We played so well. It was one of the best weeks of my career because I got Man of the Match at Old Trafford. I scored in the cup final then got Man of the Match on the Wednesday when we won the league. It meant we won the Double, so you can’t get much of a better week than that.’
Arsenal went into 2002/03 as Double winners and full of confidence, playing with a style and swagger which saw them make a sensational start to the season. It was such a good start that one of the journalists who regularly covers Arsenal, the Daily Star’s David Woods, went as far as to ask Wenger whether he thought they could go through an entire season unbeaten.
Woods recalls: ‘You could tell Wenger was not sure whether to go for it, but after a slight hesitation he gave the answer we did not expect. Yes, he insisted, it could be done and that other top managers, including Sir Alex Ferguson, felt the same but were too scared to say so. He said it with the usual half-smile on his face, and pointed out AC Milan had already done it.
‘But we all know that what managers think and what they actually say are two very different things, and you can imagine some of the players were as surprised to read what their manager had said as we were to actually hear him say it.’
Wenger made two memorable signings in the summer of 2002 with very different results. In came French defender Pascal Cygan for £2 million from Lille, while Gilberto Silva was bought from Brazilian club Atletico Mineiro, fresh from winning the World Cup with the Brazilian national team.
Gilberto is a softly spoken, charming man who flourished at Arsenal in the role of midfield general, as part of the two anchormen in front of the back four. He was often an unsung hero in Arsenal’s midfield while, in contrast, Cygan became yet another of Wenger’s defensive signings who never lived up to expectations.
Gilberto spent some time with Wenger during the summer of 2014 at the World Cup in Brazil and also met up with David Dein, the man who brokered the deal. He recalls how he came to move to Arsenal:
I had a few options but it was funny looking back. David Dein was in Brazil in the summer for the World Cup and he told me the story of how he brought me to Arsenal. He saw me together with Arsene during the World Cup in Japan in 2002 and at some point Arsene said: ‘He’s a good player.’ David asked him if he wanted the player and Arsene said: ‘Yes, OK.’ David just told him to leave it up to him. He flew to Brazil, flew home with me, and was joking that he put me in a box to make sure I couldn’t get away!
I didn’t speak the language and it took me a while to settle in to the country. What was important was the way I adapted to life in England. I’d just finished winning the World Cup with Brazil. I could have gone there thinking: ‘I’m a world champion, I’m the best in that position.’ There was one very important thing for me and that was to make sure I started from zero. In England, I was nobody.
I didn’t know much about the culture or the football. I needed to learn the whole thing. Even though everything was new for me, I was very open to learn things and that solved everything. For me, in the club, Edu was very important. He would take care of me in training, outside of the club as well, he really took care of me.
Gilberto believes Wenger was very clever in the way he combined a mix of nationalities, different characters and mentalities, to slowly build a dressing room which would quickly go on to reach new heights.
The combination of players was really important. Even though we had the French guys, the English guys and me and Edu, the two Brazilians, some other foreigners, the combination was really important because everyone thought in the same way to win games, to win competitions. We had a great mentality. We wanted to win.
We’d want to win games, even in training against each other. We put all this effort in every game. That’s why we could win the league unbeaten. Because we had this mentality, we went into games and inside our minds we knew we could win the game. We worked hard to win games; we worked so hard to win competitions.
Wenger, despite thumping Leeds away from home and comprehensively beating the likes of West Brom, Charlton and Birmingham, was put back in his place when Arsenal surrendered their unbeaten start, losing 2-1 at Everton in mid-October. They went down to a 90th-minute winner from a certain Wayne Rooney, who was just 17 at the time.
Wenger would, of course, revisit that target of finishing a season unbeaten the following year. But Arsenal struggled with consistency in the 2002/03 season and the unbeaten target lasted all of nine games.
They faced a reinvigorated Manchester United, boosted by the record signing of Rio Ferdinand, who went unbeaten in the league after Boxing Day. A 1-1 draw at Highbury on 16 April wasn’t enough. In May 2003, Arsenal lost 3-2 at home to Leeds (having also dropped points at Bolton in the previous game) and the title had returned to Manchester. As with many managers, victories that don’t mean anything only leave them wondering what might have been. So when Arsenal thrashed Southampton 6-1 in the next match – including a hat-trick by youngster Jermaine Pennant – Wenger was full of regret rather than enjoyment.
Little did Wenger know at the time but Pennant had enjoyed a huge night out before the game, as he was not expecting to play. But hangover or not, he still scored three goals.
Two weeks later, Arsenal played Southampton in the 2003 FA Cup final at the Millennium Stadium. Pires scored the first-half winner in a rather forgettable final, one of the most memorable aspects of which was that veteran keeper David Seaman captained the team in what was his last and farewell game for the club.
Interestingly, Arsenal didn’t have an open-top bus parade through the streets of Islington as they hadn’t won the league, but they did have a club party on that Saturday night in a hotel in Marble Arch. Those who were there remember it as anything but a celebration of winning a trophy. It was more of an inquest into what had gone wrong that season. That is an indication of how far Arsenal had come, the level of expectation and also the desire to win within the squad.
Senior players even rallied among themselves, ramming home the message that it wasn’t enough, they were going to come back stronger and have a better season next year. It was a sombre affair full of frustration. The party had been overtaken by a group of big characters like Henry, Campbell and Pires, who wanted more each season.
It had been Gilberto Silva’s first season at the club and, despite winning the FA Cup, it is obvious that was seen very much as a consolation prize:
The FA Cup was a great feeling. The feeling was amazing because when you are at a great club, a big club, you have to work hard to win titles because it’s what they expect from you. The only way we could compensate our sacrifice during the season, to pay a tribute to the fans, because we lost the league, was winning the FA Cup, even though we wanted the Double . . .
But a strong group with a winning mentality becomes even more determined when you have a disappointment. You want to work even harder. You want to improve from the year before. Don’t let anything pass you by. And that season was a bit of a disappointment [because] we let the opportunity to win the league pass in front of us . . .
We learned a lot from that season. For me, the way I started at Arsenal and what the club achieved was fantastic. In my first year in Europe, I think I started in a very good way. There were many good players, good guys who supported me from the outside. But the biggest thing in that group was the characters, the determination and the desire to win.
Wenger had seen a remarkable mentality and character develop throughout the squad. But even with some big promises and lofty ambitions, surely the following season must have been beyond their wildest dreams.