It is 20 years since the start of Arsene Wenger’s first full season in English football - but he can still remember it clearly.
In the summer of 1997, the Arsenal manager was in the process of reshaping his squad for a tilt at the title, with Dutch winger Marc Overmars his star signing.
“I had exactly in my mind the type of players I wanted,” Wenger told Arsenal Player. “It was quite easy to [sign] players and it was easy to make decisions as well.
“The difficult decision was Overmars, because the medical department said at the time not to do it. But I had a clear idea after six or seven months at the club of what I needed to improve the team.
“It was also a very cheap buy on top of that because he came back from a cruciate [injury].”
Wenger also added unknown quantities such as Christopher Wreh, Alex Manninger, Matthew Upon and Luis Boa More to his ranks during a busy summer.
“They all played their part that season and were young talented players,” he said. “They did not all make it [here] but I went for them because I believe they had the talent.
“Many of them showed after that they had the talent, like Upson, who had a great career.”
Remembering... Overmars
Copyright 2023 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
