Mark Hateley featured 68 times under Arsène Wenger’s managership, scoring 24 goals, and crucially winning the Ligue 1 title back in the 1987/88 season. The former England international waxed lyrical about the Frenchman, renowned for his stint at Arsenal, stating that he had “energy through the ceiling” when managing the Principality club, whilst also lauding his capacity to, despite his inexperience, win over the squad and implement his philosophy.
Speaking exclusively to Get French Football News, Hateley also shared an anecdote, which he believes may have been key in allowing Wenger to understand the British culture when he arrived at Arsenal. “Glenn (Hoddle) and I, we’d fly on a private plane whenever we were going to a match in France. After every game, we’d sit at the back of the plane with a couple of beers each and we’d drink and talk about the game. All the French players would sit amongst it but wouldn’t drink, but they smoked a lot. Wenger came back to us and said, ‘You British, you do drink a lot’. I said, ‘Not a lot but I drink after a game. It’s part of our culture to have a couple of beers and talk about the game, have a debrief’. It is what we used to game. We said ‘We’re not hurting anybody, you’re guys (French players) are smoking. Can you tell them to stop smoking? That’s damaging my health,” said Hateley.
The Englishman then detailed Wenger’s response. “He took that all in and we got the French boys to start coming to the back of the plane and it formed a unity. We’d all have a couple of drinks, nothing too excessive, and what it would have done, going to Arsenal, and going into British culture, it would have set him ready to deal with that.”
Wenger would go on to manage 1234 games for Arsenal between 1996 and 2018. In that time, he won three Premier League titles, including an invincible campaign in 2003/04, as well as seven FA Cups.
You can read GFFN’s full interview with Mark Hateley HERE
Mark Hateley was speaking to Get French Football News exclusively on behalf of Online Slots Real Money.
