The sport that Arsene Wenger brought back from Japan was sumo wrestling. Not at participant level, obviously. Fit as a flea, he hasn’t the build. What enthralled Wenger was sumo’s culture, its principles.
‘Sumo is historical,’ he says. ‘The roots haven’t changed since the 1600s. It taught me a lot. Respect is a fundamental value. There are six tournaments a year and you have to win two of them to become a yokozuna, the highest rank.
'But the winning sumo wrestler then must go before a judging committee who assesses whether his behaviour has been beyond reproach.