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Published 17:34 20 Apr 2018 BST
Updated 17:37 20 Apr 2018 BST
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A story from the brilliant book, The Mixer: The Story of Premier League Tactics, from Route One to False Nines, by Michael Cox, perfectly sums up Wenger's genius in his early years at Arsenal.
Back in 1999, the season after Arsenal had won the league and FA Cup double, Wenger had a problem on his hands, as two of his best players weren't getting along.
Nicolas Anelka, Marc Overmars and Dennis Bergkamp, were key members of Wenger's first great Arsenal team, but Anelka had an issue with Overmars.
Anelka felt that the Dutch winger was ignoring him and choosing to pass to Bergkamp instead and complained about it in public.
"'I'm not getting enough of the ball,' he muttered to the French press. 'I'm going to see the manager soon because Overmars is too selfish'."However, Wenger found a way to resolve the dispute between the pair and ensure team harmony was maintained when he called both men into his office for talks. "The complication, however, was that Anelka barely spoke English and Overmars didn’t understand French, so Wenger was not only moderator but also interpreter, and played the situation beautifully," Cox writes.
"He asked the two players to spell out their issues; Anelka repeated his complaint to Wenger in their native tongue, while in English, Overmars claimed he always looked out for Anelka’s runs and didn’t understand his problem. "Rather than translating their comments accurately, Wenger simply told Overmars that Anelka had said he no longer had a problem, then told Anelka that Overmars was promising to pass more. Both were lies, but it temporarily resolved the situation."
Wenger played the situation perfectly and got the best out of both players during their time at Arsenal. Anelka left at the end of that season, joining Real Madrid for £23m. The following year, Overmars joined Barcelona for £25m.
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