Arsene Wenger’s autobiography: The 5 biggest reveals in our exclusive extracts

Former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger will publish his first autobiography in 2020 and we can reveal the 5 biggest talking points that will emerge upon the book’s release.

1. The zipper on his bench coat was his greatest adversary

The 69-year-old Frenchman was embroiled in some of the most memorable rivalries of the Premier League era. The manager dubbed “Le Professeur” locked horns with the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho and even Sam Allardyce during his tenure at Arsenal, but Wenger maintains his greatest-ever adversary was the tricky zipper on his freakishly long bench coat.

During the latter part of his reign, Wenger would often be caught on camera wrestling with his zipper while completely oblivious to events on the pitch.

I had some titanic tussles over the years but none more than with that b**tard zipper’, he admitted.

2. The one player Barcelona didn’t tap up

There have been many publicised transfer sagas involving Arsenal stars who defected to the Camp Nou under Wenger’s stewardship. Overmars, Petit, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Hleb, Fabregas, Alex Song and Thierry Henry – to name a few.

Now Wenger claims that Barca made an illegal approach for every single one of his players at Arsenal – except one. Igor Stepanovs. For those of you unfamiliar with Stepanovs’ work, think a Latvian Phil Jones, only much slower. The 7′ 3″ central defender made 17 league appearances for Arsenal during four years at the club and played a starring role in the 6-1 defeat by Manchester United at Old Trafford.

After which he was named United’s man-of-the-match.

3. He saw every incident he once denied seeing

Arsene Wenger claiming not to have witnessed a controversial incident involving one of his players has been as common a feature of the Premier League era as Alex Ferguson jabbing his index finger at his watch or Jamie Redknapp’s use of the word literally.

Every time Patrick Vieira would test an opponent’s skull-strength using his elbow, Wenger would deny even seeing the incident. However, the former Monaco boss has finally confessed to seeing every single one of his player’s on-field indiscretions.

‘Every f**king last one of them’, chuckled the Frenchman.

‘I was being paid tens of millions of pounds to manage Arsenal, what else would I have possibly been doing other than watching the game? Playing Farmville?’.

4. Turned down the Real Madrid job several times

We’ve all been there. After winning a few trophies with a smaller club, inevitably some of Europe’s top clubs will start sniffing around. And Wenger was no different. The former Grampus Eight boss has revealed he turned down overtures from Spanish giants Real Madrid on more than one occasion.

‘Yes, I admit, I turned down a job offer from Real Madrid’, revealed the Frenchman.

‘Then I saved the game and turned off the laptop. That was enough Football Manager for one day’.

5. He leaked the Coleen Rooney stories to The Sun

The internet was rocked to its very core last week when Coleen Rooney accused a fellow WAG of leaking stories about her to the press. However, Wenger has sensationally revealed it was HE who ratted out the wife of former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney to the tabloids. ‘I’ve never forgiven the b**tard for diving to win the penalty which ended our 49-game unbeaten run’, explained Wenger.

“I admire the way in which Coleen attempted to identify the source of the leak but I’m afraid her Wagatha Christie title is not deserved – because I was the real mole in the camp’, the Frenchman said with a wry smile.