LONDON — Arsène Wenger, coming up on his 19th anniversary as manager of Arsenal, is now in his 52nd year in professional soccer. He has probably heard more ridiculous tales about which players he needs to buy than most of us have had hot suppers to eat.
But the philosophical Wenger likes nothing more than to develop a player. So far this off season he has spent $17 million for a world-class goalkeeper — and a quarter of that on recruiting 11 embryonic starlets that he hopes to groom into stars one day.
Wenger is now well into the latter stages of coaching, yet he still comes alive whenever he sees a genuine prospect blossom on his team.