Wenger and a prayer

Ian Ridley charts a turbulent new chapter in Arsenal's history

After a 1-1 draw, Arsenal's only interruption to six pre- season defeats, Bruce Rioch marched into the dressing-room with that purposeful step he inherited from his sergeant major father in his home town of Aldershot to bawl out his players. "I feel like Marjorie Proops, trying to sort out all your problems," he said. In fact he was the one with the biggest problem of all those present and incorrect.

Two days after that match, John Wark's testimonial at Ipswich, it was Rioch penning the "Dear Marje" letter after his decree absolute from Highbury, and the rest has been hysteria. Terry Venables, Johan Cruyff, even Tony Adams as player-coach - though surprisingly not David Platt - were all mentioned as successors before it became clear that Arsene Wenger is l'homme. After the gunsmoke of a few days earlier, Arsenal's signings of Wenger's fellow Frenchmen Remi Garde and Patrick Vieira represented the first whiffs of the white smoke.

Arsenal's annual meeting on Thursday may want more information but Wenger himself told L'Equipe in France on Friday that he would make no statement about his future until next Friday or Saturday. He could not resist discussing the challenge, however. "I know the club want to build a new team," he said, "and what I always look to do is to go as far as possible with a team. The English game is dominated by Manchester United, Newcastle and Liverpool but Arsenal have the power and the money to be on the top again."

As Wenger's remarks suggest, London football has assumed an importance its achievements hardly merit, largely because the media are based at its hub. Only three of its clubs have won the championship: Arsenal, Tottenham and, once, Chelsea.

But in playing terms, beyond bungs scandals, petty criminal players, drug revelation and rehabilitation, and internal politics that have clearly seen Rioch at odds over transfer policy with the vice-chairman David Dein - and which have at least shed the boring, boring epithet - Arsenal warrant greater respect than their metropolitan rivals.

For all his pragmatism, then greed, George Graham instilled an edge in 1989 which brought the title to the capital for the first time in 18 years, and repeated it two years later. This was a problem for Rioch and will be for Wenger. Having inherited an ageing, waning and threadbare squad and hampered by the post-Graham policy of transfers being handled by the administrative powers, Rioch found change almost impossible to effect. His wanted list submitted to Dein, supposedly totalling 29 players, among them Milan's hot property George Weah, was deemed unrealistic and may have been a bloody-minded attempt to highlight the deficiencies of the system.

Perhaps wearied by the perception that he was all talk, no action in his dealings with Dein - whose power has not yet been eroded by his selling of shares to the emerging director and ally Danny Fiszman - Rioch withdrew to the training ground. The chairman Peter Hill-Wood cited a lack of communication as a reason for his dismissal.

Rioch's breakdown in communication with Ian Wright, as potent a figure in the dressing-room as Dein is on the other side of the marble halls, has been another factor. Those of us who cupped an ear to hear Rioch accusing Wright of not pulling his weight in a pre-season friendly at St Albans last year knew the relationship was off on the wrong foot. Don't worry, Wright was apparently told following another contretemps with Rioch after a cup-tie at Sheffield United, you'll be here longer than the manager. For all that, and his resented references to how his old Bolton charges used to do things, Rioch has been harshly treated. The reported compensation of pounds 500,000 would do as a sizeable sop for most of us but his professional pride will be damaged. With a limited team, he has taken the club back into the Uefa Cup and they had begun to play more attractively. Now he is unfulfilled.

Not soft as Marje, he sought to bring dignity again to a club he was brought up to call The Arsenal, but his regime's strictness, tempered with attempted understanding, has not worked with players set in their ways and previously used to stick more than carrot. Following his second ill-fated stay with a London club, after Millwall, Rioch may reflect on the difficulties of dealing with the capital breed who can be arrogant and easily diverted from the demands of professionalism, one factor in its comparative lack of sustained success beyond cup competitions. If only they were all like Dennis Bergkamp, he might conclude.

Another of Rioch's problems was that while Arsenal and London may be seductive to top overseas players, his name was not. An emerging trend in the English game in the Bosman era has become the profile of the manager abroad when it comes to negotiations. Witness Newcastle and Kevin Keegan, Middlesbrough and Bryan Robson, Chelsea and Glenn Hoddle then Ruud Gullit. Ah for Kenny Dalglish again, Blackburn's board may muse.

Enter Wenger. Some may have asked Arsene Who? - an insult to many Arsenal supporters - but this sophisticated figure is a widely respected coach in the world game, as evidenced by Franz Beckenbauer's failed attempt on behalf of Bayern Munich to recruit him from Japan a couple of years ago. At Monaco, where he became the instigator of Glenn Hoddle's coaching career, he turned a highly paid but dispirited bunch - where have we heard that before? - into league and cup winners. A 47-year-old single man who says he has always been wedded to football, he has a style based on defensive organisation first, inspiration next. Arsenal through and through.

Not all have been enamoured of his methods and Jurgen Klinsmann criticised him for a lack of adventure in a Champions' League match against Barcelona when the pair were in harness for Monaco. But Wenger's knowledge of, and ability to recruit from, overseas was crucial.

Garde, a libero cum midfield player, is now 30 and with injuries having beset him in recent years, may not be the most thrilling of signings. That of the 20-year-old Vieira promises much, though he too has suffered recent injury.

A leggy midfield player, Vieira was a wonderkid with Cannes before Milan snapped him up. Indeed, it was a surprise that they released him. Perhaps it has something to do with the car crash in which he and Weah were involved, only air bags saving them from serious injury, after the pair had taken off without permission to watch a match in Nice. If someone who is 6ft 3in can be described as a sprat, then perhaps Vieira is the bait to catch the mackerel Weah. The Liberian was brought to Monaco by Wenger who, communicating in English, developed him into the exciting striker and well-adjusted person he has become, as Weah acknowledged in dedicating his World Footballer of the Year award to Wenger. The attraction of rejoining his old coach would be obvious, the more so now that Arsenal can compete financially with Italy.

Ian Wright, justifiably the darling of the North Bank with his sometimes single-handed rescuing of results, surely cannot endure that much longer as his pace dwindles. He might have to look to his laurels, along with others of the old guard. Before, perhaps. Owlish and softly spoken Wenger may be, but he is, after all, an Alsatian.

The old guard in danger as a new age beckons

ONLY David Seaman, Tony Adams, Dennis Bergkamp and, possibly, David Platt, can expect to be certain of their futures under Arsene Wenger though the new coach, for political and practical reasons, may have to keep Ian Wright happy. Paul Merson will also need sensitive handling. Otherwise, that famous defence is most at risk, where the plea is help the aged.

Lee Dixon, 32. Under-rated at his pacey peak but now gets up and down the right less swiftly.

Steve Bould, 33. Now error-prone, his potency has been undermined by the stricter enforcement of rules on tackling from behind and the change in the offside law.

Andy Linighan, 34. Pace a memory because of injury; positioning a problem.

Martin Keown, 30. Decent marker, ever enthusiastic and an important figure under Rioch.

Nigel Winterburn, 33. See Lee Dixon. On the growing-rarer sorties upfield, often struggles to get back and fill exposed left flank.

Under scrutiny: Glenn Helder, David Hillier, Ray Parlour, Chris Kiwomya, Eddie McGoldrick. And will the new man rate John Hartson?