Souness believes Arsenal legend Arsene Wenger got ‘lucky’ for four reasons
Graeme Souness believes three-time Premier League and seven-time FA Cup winner Arsene Wenger got “very, very lucky” at Arsenal.
Souness was speaking on his Three Up Front podcast with ex-Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan and former Watford captain Troy Deeney.
Arsenal legend Wenger not a football man, but a ‘lucky’ man – Souness
Deeney and Jordan are not opposed to a wild take and were stunned by the Scot’s opinion of the legendary Arsenal manager, which says all you need to know.
The Liverpool legend believes Wenger “inherited the best back five” in the world, as well as a young Dennis Bergkamp and an Ian Wright who ‘still had life in him’.
Asked if he thinks Wenger is “a football man”, Souness responded to Jordan: “No, not particularly.
“I’ve been on the bench listening to what he’s telling his players to do. I’ve been working for Sky in games where he’s made very strange decisions.
“My take on him was he got very, very lucky at a time when French football produced its greatest ever group of players.
“Inherited the best back five in world football and a 22-year-old [Dennis] Bergkamp. I think Wrighty [Ian Wright], there was still life in him.
“And then he had 10 years where he won a couple of FA Cups, because that cycle had been and gone.
“I’ve never spoke to him about football. He would never come into my office after a game, the only manager that never did.
“I’d go to his office after a game, he would never be there to talk football. I don’t know if he’s a football man or not. I never spoke football with him.”
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Souness is clearly not Wenger’s biggest fan. Is it all because he never went to his office after a match? Probably. After all, it is an atrocity.
In February, he claimed that Liverpool icon Jurgen Klopp is a bigger managerial legend.
“I think that one competition, whether it’s me overvaluing it or not, but I think there’s so much hype and interest and glamour surrounding the Champions League nowadays – Klopp has won it as well,” he said.
“It was the first time that Liverpool had won it [the Premier League] in 30 years. I just think it’s a unique group to be in. To be able to say you’re a manager who has won the Champions League, I think that puts you in a legendary category.”
He also said in 2022: “I think he had a fantastic 10 years, but he did inherit the best back-five arguably in world football.
“He had a knowledge of French football when France produced the best group of players in the history of French football and he had an insight before anyone else did.
“For 10 years they were the real deal, then for another decade I don’t think he came anywhere near that. I think [the greatest legacy] goes to Fergie [Sir Alex Ferguson], he built three or four teams, his legacy is the largest.
“Pep [Guardiola] has definitely brought something different into our game, the playing out from the back was creeping into the game but it was a surge when he arrived, with pitches improving you could do that more.
“Central defenders and full-backs were never entirely comfortable taking the ball in their own box, but the game has evolved and everyone now does it in the higher leagues.
“I would say he has had a major, major influence on where the game has gone.”
