Supermac1976
03-22-2014, 07:28 AM
"I've always taken an interest in global football. I knew his name but had never met him until 1989 when he showed up, quite surprisingly, at Highbury to watch a game.
"My wife, Barbara, was in the cocktail lounge. She'd managed to escape from what was then the Ladies' Room - which, euphemistically, people used to call the Broom Cupboard - and they started up a conversation with Arsene. I was in the boardroom at the time and she asked me if I knew Arsene Wenger, the Monaco manager, was in the cocktail lounge.
"So I went through at half-time, introduced myself to Arsene and said, 'What are you doing here?'. He said: 'I've just come from Turkey'. It was the break in the season in France and he wasn't going back to Monaco for a few days. He said: 'I'm just here overnight'. So I said: 'What are you doing tonight?'. He said: 'Nothing'. I said: 'Well, my wife and I are going out for dinner to a friend's house, would you like to join us?'. He said: 'That would be great'.
"That evening we took him out to our friend's house for dinner. Coming from Strasbourg, his first two languages were French and German - and his English wasn't that great at the time - but he felt quite comfortable. The friend happened to be in showbusiness and they decided to play charades at the end of the evening. I said to Arsene, 'Do you want to play?' He said: 'OK', and about two minutes later he's acting out A Midsummer Night's Dream.
"I thought 'This guy's something special, he's a bit different'. Just then it was like a flash of lightning, I sort of saw in the sky: 'Arsene for Arsenal, it's destiny, one day he will be our manager'." :bow: :bow:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26680514
"My wife, Barbara, was in the cocktail lounge. She'd managed to escape from what was then the Ladies' Room - which, euphemistically, people used to call the Broom Cupboard - and they started up a conversation with Arsene. I was in the boardroom at the time and she asked me if I knew Arsene Wenger, the Monaco manager, was in the cocktail lounge.
"So I went through at half-time, introduced myself to Arsene and said, 'What are you doing here?'. He said: 'I've just come from Turkey'. It was the break in the season in France and he wasn't going back to Monaco for a few days. He said: 'I'm just here overnight'. So I said: 'What are you doing tonight?'. He said: 'Nothing'. I said: 'Well, my wife and I are going out for dinner to a friend's house, would you like to join us?'. He said: 'That would be great'.
"That evening we took him out to our friend's house for dinner. Coming from Strasbourg, his first two languages were French and German - and his English wasn't that great at the time - but he felt quite comfortable. The friend happened to be in showbusiness and they decided to play charades at the end of the evening. I said to Arsene, 'Do you want to play?' He said: 'OK', and about two minutes later he's acting out A Midsummer Night's Dream.
"I thought 'This guy's something special, he's a bit different'. Just then it was like a flash of lightning, I sort of saw in the sky: 'Arsene for Arsenal, it's destiny, one day he will be our manager'." :bow: :bow:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26680514