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Those mornings, there was never enough time. For years, you could set your watch by Arsène Wenger. Punctuality is a rare trait in soccer, but Wenger was fastidious about it. His weekly news conference at Colney, Arsenal’s training facility just outside London, always started at 9 a.m. And it started at 9 a.m. sharp.
There were days when Wenger was defensive, prickly, a little irascible, but they were rare. Often, particularly in the later years of his reign, he gave the impression that he was happy to talk, to chew the fat, to delve deep into some issue or other that had grabbed his attention.