There was an air of apprehension among a certain cluster of Arsenal players 20 years ago — those whose 30th birthday was a memory were anxious as a new manager few, if any, of them had heard of in all their years in the game was due to arrive at the club.
Among them was a 33-year-old Nigel Winterburn.
“No-one knew what to expect,” recalls Winterburn of the appointment Arsene Wenger , who officially took charge on October 1st 1996. “But he was fantastic for me and the other defenders at the club who were around my age.”
Also falling into that bracket were the likes of Lee Dixon, Tony Adams, Martin Keown and Steve Bould.
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Winterburn added: “What you sometimes find is that new managers are a little anxious about the more senior players. And we had been together as a unit for years under George Graham.
“We were regimented as a unit. Arsene saw that. He realised that we were a real asset as a group. What he did was give us the kind of training and preparation that enabled us to keep on producing our best.”
It was in the pre-season preparation for the 1997-98 season that Winterburn got an insight of what Wenger was about.
“He had already introduced subtle changes,” said the now 52-year-old former left-back. “For a start, the players' bar stopped alcohol after matches.
"He made us eat an hour after the game.
"A lot has been made about the diet he introduced at the training ground and the supplements and tablets. To be honest, that didn't have too much of an affect on me. I mean, you can dictate what players eat at the training ground but there is nothing you can do once they leave, is there?
“No, it was the attention to detail that really impressed me.
"In the pre-season ahead of his first full season, he had different programmes depending on your age. In my group, we had one more second to do an exercise. It doesn't sound a lot but it was important. We ended up doing the same – sometimes more – as the younger ones.
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“And everything, from day one of pre-season, was done with a ball. We were a little surprised by that. We never used to see one for a week!
“Also when he saw what my group had as a unit, he didn't change just for the sake of it. He believed we still had something to offer and in fact I played for three more seasons.
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“What did he say to us? He just gave us more freedom. The defensive discipline was still there — I mean, we had played all those years under George Graham, so that was never going to leave us!”
Winterburn also found Wenger a straight and honest man to deal with in off-the-field issues.
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And then he and vice-chairman David Dein offered Winterburn a considerable pay increase to stay:
“But I told them that I wanted to carry on playing, I felt able to do that so I turned down the offer. I think David Dein was astonished but Arsene realised, I believe, what I was saying and understood why I left [to join West Ham].”
Winterburn remains to this day a huge Wenger fan and acknowledges the way this "great, great manager" transformed Arsenal.