French manager Arsene Wenger arrived at Highbury from Japanese side Nagoya Grampus on October 1st, 1996, with 12 years of managerial experience, spent mainly in France, with Monaco, AS Nancy and Cannes.
Wenger brought almost immediate success to Arsenal, winning the Premier League and FA Cup double in his first full season in charge [1997/98 season].
In total Wenger won 17 trophies during his time at Arsenal, becoming Premier League champions on three occasions, and success seven times in the FA Cup and Community Shield. Most of his success came early in his regime at Arsenal, 11 of his trophies coming in his first 10 years at Arsenal.
The club found themselves in a trophy-barren spell in the mid 2000’s, not lifting a trophy for nine years, where a 2014 FA Cup brought silverware to Emirates Stadium for the first time. Arsenal finished runners-up on four occasions during their trophyless spell, including a 2006 Champions League final defeat to Barcelona, and a Europa League semi-final defeat to Atletico Madrid in 2018.
The final four years for Wenger provided plenty of highs and lows. Despite winning three FA Cups and three Community Shields. In 2017, Arsenal failed to qualify for Champions League football for the first time since 1998 which was the start of their Europa League runs, having not reached the Champions League since.
The trail end of the Wenger era became quite sour, large proportions of Arsenal fans calling for him to leave the club, wanting something fresh after 22 years at the club.
The farewell
In-fighting, protests and banners encapsulated the fanbase for the final few years of Wenger’s time at Arsenal, but his final home game in 2018 celebrated the great successes that he brought to Highbury and Emirates Stadium, a stadium move in which he was pivotal to ensuring happened.
Following his departure from Arsenal, Wenger spent some time away football, before joining FIFA as their Director of Development, a somewhat surprising move for many football fans who believed Wenger could secure another job in football, either as a domestic or national manager.