• 1949 - Born October 22, Strasbourg, France.
• 1969 to 1978 - He begins his amateur playing career with Mutzig, a third division outfit, and had spells with two more amateur clubs - Mulhouse and Vauban - before turning professional.
• 1974: Graduates with a degree in economics from Strasbourg University.
• 1978 - Makes professional debut for Strasbourg against Monaco.
• 1979 - Wins French title with Strasbourg, but plays only three matches for them during the season.
• 1981 - Obtains manager's diploma in Paris. Appointed Strasbourg youth-team coach - a position he holds for two years.
• 1983 - Becomes assistant coach with Cannes.
• 1984 - Appointed coach of Nancy and makes a bad start as the club are relegated.
• 1987 - Becomes manager of Monaco and his career takes off..
• 1988 - Wins French championship after bringing Englishmen Glenn Hoddle and Mark Hateley to the club.
• 1988 - Named French manager of the year.
• 1989 - Monaco finish second in League, reach quarter-finalists of European Cup and lose in French Cup final.
• 1990 - Monaco come third in League and reach semi-finals of European Cup.
• 1991 - Monaco finish runners-up in French championship but wins French Cup.
• 1992 - Runners-up in League again, finalists in unplayed French Cup final and beaten by Bremen in European Cup Winners' Cup final.
• 1994 - Monaco reach semi-finals of Champions' League. Wenger awarded best manager accolade on record over previous six years and offered the jobs as manager of French national team and of Bayern Munich. Rejected both because of his Monaco commitments, but within weeks was sacked after Monaco finish ninth in the League.
• 1995 - Moves to Japan to take over J-League club Nagoya Grampus Eight and is voted Japan's manager of the year
• 1996 - Wins Emperor's Cup and Japanese Super Cup with Grampus.
• September 1996 to 1997- Accepts Arsenal's approach to succeed Bruce Rioch as manager and guides the Gunners to a third place Premiership finish and a UEFA Cup place.
• 1998 - Wins Premier League with new club record 10 consecutive league wins. Arsenal equal Manchester United's record of two league and cup doubles when they beat Newcastle 2-0 in the FA Cup final.
• 1998- Named premier league manager of the year.
• 1999: The Gunners finish runners-up to Manchester United in the Premier League and the same side knock them out of the FA Cup in a semi-final replay.
• 1999: Spends £11million, bringing Thierry Henry to Highbury along with Croatia international Davor Suker following the £23million sale of Nicolas Anelka to Real Madrid.
• 2000 - Arsenal finish runners-up in both the Premier League and UEFA Cup, where they are beaten on penalties by Galatasaray in Copenhagen.
• 2001 - December - Signs four-year extension to contract.
• 2001 - Wenger receives 12-match touchline ban after being found guilty by the Football Association of "threatening behaviour and physical intimidation" to fourth official, Paul Taylor, after defeat on the opening day of the season at Sunderland.
• 2001: February - Ban is overturned by appeal board.
• 2001: Gunners finish runners-up to United and lose FA Cup final to Liverpool 2-1 at Millennium Stadium.
• 2002: Wins second league and cup double.
• 2003: Wins FA Cup by beating Southampton.
• 2003: Receives honorary OBE in Queen's birthday honours list.
• 2004: Arsenal win Premier League after going through season unbeaten. Their only disappointments are a Champions League quarter-final loss to Chelsea and an FA semi-final defeat by Manchester United.
• 2004: Arsenal lose 2-0 to Manchester United at Old Trafford, the defeat ending a 49-match unbeaten league run. Wenger later found guilty of improper conduct relating to comments about referee Mike Riley and United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy after the defeat. Also reportedly involved in a furious tunnel row with United boss Sir Alex Ferguson after the game, the exchange sparking the infamous 'battle of the buffet'.
• 2005: May - Wins FA Cup with penalty shoot-out win over United.
• 2006: Arsenal reach final of Champions League but lose 2-1 to Barcelona.
• 2007: Ends speculation about his future by signing a three-year contract extension, tying him to the club until June 2011.

Arsene Wenger has been rewarded for his magnificent seven-year spell in English football with an honorary OBE (Officer in the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in the Queen's Birthday honours list in June 2003, for his 'outstanding contribution to British football'.

The master manager has just led Arsenal to their fifth trophy during his time at Highbury, although the Gunners' FA Cup triumph was overshadowed by seeing Manchester United reclaim their league title.

Losing the championship after leading at one stage by eight points was a disappointment for Wenger but no-one would bet against Arsenal taking back their crown next term.

European success has eluded Wenger during his time at Highbury, bar losing out to Galasataray in the UEFA Cup final of 2000. It is success in the Champions League that Wenger now craves most, having reached the knock-out stages of the competition on only one occasion.

Wenger has boosted the club's ambitions by continually dismissing reports linking him with Real Madrid, and seems set to stay at Highbury for at least one more year.

Arsene Wenger had been touted around as a possible for the technical director's job with the FA prior to his arrival at Highbury. But, hot on the heels of the shock dismissal of Bruce Rioch, came an even bigger shock (one of the worst kept secret in football history), which was that Arsene Wenger was to be the next Arsenal manager. And so Arsene Wenger was handed the managerial reins at Arsenal in September 1996.

The 51-year-old Frenchman arrived at Highbury after dragging relegation-threatened Nagoya Grampus Eight into second place in the Japanese League. As a player, he had graced sides like Mulhouse, Mutzig, Vauban and Strasbourg. During his playing career, Wenger had shown no charismatic playing achievements to under-pin his managerial career. However his managerial achievements prior to Highbury were quite outstanding, at Monaco he managed to win the French league and never once was the club out of the top three in his seven year reign as chief coach. He won the French Cup in 1991 (the next season they reached the final of the Cup Winners Cup) and took the club into the European Cup in 1988-89.

Before arriving in north London, Wenger had already recommended signing two of his compatriots - Remi Garde and Patrick Vieira - this was the start of a number of French acquisitions. Emmanuel Petit (Monaco) and Nicolas Anelka (Paris St Germain) followed, with Dutchman Marc Overmars adding to the foreign influx.

The French connection

With many English players forming the backbone the successful team in the 1980s and early 1990s, some were sceptical of the new signings.

In Wenger's first season, the sceptics were quietened, if not silenced, as Arsenal mounted a serious title challenge for the first time since 1991. It's thumbs up for Wenger at Highbury

The doubters were cast aside in the following season, as Arsenal claimed both the Premiership crown and FA Cup.

Thierry Henry proved a sensational purchase and after France triumphed in the 1998 World Cup, Sylvain Wiltord and Robert Pires soon arrived.

Controversy overshadowed the beginning of the current season for Wenger as he was charged by the FA for "alleged threatening behaviour" to an official. He was later cleared of the charge but was found guilty of misconduct and fined £10,00 instead of a 12-match touchline ban.

Born in Strasbourg, Wenger started his amateur playing career with Mutzig in the French Third Division as a sweeper-defender.

Big in Japan

One of the more educated coaches in the business. He speaks a wide variety of languages, including German, Spanish, Italian and some Japanese - that's got to be a great advantage in bringing world class players to the club. He graduated in 1974 with a degree in economics from Strasbourg University. He turned professional with Strasbourg in 1978 and won the French title a year after his debut. In 1981, he obtained the manager's diploma in Paris and was made youth team coach at Strasbourg.

After a brief spell as assistant coach with Cannes, he was appointed coach of Nancy two years later, but suffered relegation in his opening season. His reputation took off after being made manager at Monaco in 1987.

His success at the club began with the French Championship in 1988 and was offered jobs with the French national team and Bayern Munich in 1994. He was however sacked just weeks after commiting his future to Monaco, before his move to Japan in 1995.

Arsene Wenger has been linked with several big clubs (including Manchester United) and the French post recently. Let's all hope that Arsene Wenger having signed a new 4 years contract with Arsenal FC will continue a good run in for the 2001-02 season !

Arsenal Under Wenger
It is not so long since Arsenal's glory years under George Graham, but those days seem flat compared to the current thrill-a-minute Gunners' side.

If anyone is responsible for putting the fizz into 'Boring' Arsenal, it is Arsene Wenger, the elegant and articulate Frenchman whose influence on English football has extended throughout the game.

What is Wenger's secret? It is a question that has flexed many minds, and Arsenal's vice-chairman David Dein - the man who brought Wenger to Highbury - believes that although some of his attributes are obvious, there are some facets that will remain forever unknown.

Dein said: "If we all knew the secret formula for Coca-Cola it would not be such an exclusive and successful product, and the same is true of Arsene. He has so many attributes: his intelligence, his man-management skills, his encyclopaedic knowledge of players world-wide, his complete dedication to the game and his honesty to the players. He also speaks six languages - he's fluent in French, English, German, Italian and Spanish and can converse in Japanese."

Thierry Henry is rated by some as the best striker in the world, but it is worth remembering that until Wenger brought him to Arsenal he was playing as a winger.

In fact, it is incredible that France won the World Cup in 1998, such was their dearth of strikers. Henry, playing both out wide and up front, was dropped for the latter stages and Stephane Guivarch - remember him? - was billed as their top forward.

It was only thanks to goals by Zinedine Zidane, Lilian Thuram, Laurent Blanc and Emmanuel Petit - two midfielders and two defenders - that they progressed through the final stages and won the biggest prize in football.

Look at France's victorious Euro 2000 team and the side today, and they have a plethora of world-class forwards. It is perhaps no coincidence that Henry, David Trezeguet, Nicolas Anelka and Sylvain Wiltord have all at some stage passed through Wenger's hands.

Somehow Wenger manages to extract brilliance for seeming mediocrity, or at least allow talent to express itself to its fullest.

Dein added: "He does have this ability to get the best out of a player. Thierry Henry was not a regular at Juventus or in the France team - before we bought him he was about to be loaned out to another Italian team - while Patrick Vieira was a reserve player at AC Milan.

"There are others too. Manu Petit was not an international regular, he revitalised Marc Overmars, he made Nicolas Anelka into an international player, and Freddie Ljungberg was a complete unknown at his former club Halmstad of Sweden.

"Robert Pires' career has totally blossomed under Arsene's tutelage to the extent he has won this season's (Football Writers') Footballer of the Year award. Furthermore, one of the reasons Sol Campbell joined Arsenal was because Arsene was the coach."

Wenger's history is well-known. A professional player of modest ability, he flourished as coach of Monaco before moving to Japan. Dein had long been an acquaintance of Wenger's and had followed his progress with interest before bringing him to Highbury.

"I did have the benefit of monitoring his performances over a long period prior to him coming to the club - I had known him for 10 years before he came here," said Dein.

Wenger's arrival engineered a shift in the power structure in English football to the position today where Arsenal and Manchester United are balanced beautifully. What makes it even more interesting is the rivalry between the managers.

No one has ever got up Sir Alex Ferguson's nose in the way that Wenger has - and almost certainly that is the way the Frenchman wants it. What other reason for his continued insistence over the last few weeks that "we will win the league".

Wenger did not just transform the club on the pitch, but off it too. Although the shift was underway before he arrived, he changed Arsenal from a team of long-ball merchants with a drinking culture that had already made worrying headlines into a team of near-teetotal athletes with a style to please even the most demanding connoisseur.

Apart from his dietary and fitness innovations, Wenger masterminded the Gunners' new state-of-the-art training complex which is regarded as one of the best in Europe.

It was Arsenal's new style that carried them to the double four years ago, in the 1997-1998 season, his first full season in charge of Arsenal. It was a dream start and it saw Arsene Wenger become the first foreign coach to win the English League title.