Arsene Wenger can be forgiven a wry smile as he leads Arsenal out at next month’s Champions League Final. As his team, permeated with young players, took time to adjust to Patrick Vieira’s close season departure critics questioned Wenger’s decision to allow his Captain to leave. Revered amongst his peers for his ability to continually unearth young talent and develop them into World class players, Wenger’s belief in his latest prodigies never wavered. Sue McCann spoke with Arsene Wenger to find out how and when he put his remarkable youth scouting network in place.

“I always feel that I started (my career) with young players. I was responsible for an Academy and at the time I was at a club where I couldn’t afford to scout. So I had to take my car at night and travel myself, look at youth team games and find the players and develop them. That’s where I first got a taste for that and I developed an eye for that. I saw as well at that stage how important it is for a young player to get a chance. When I took over then as a First Team manager I always had an eye on the youth teams and continued to do a little bit of the (youth team) job I did before, plus I had the job of the senior team. I started at a club where there weren’t many resources as a first team manager so I had no real choice. That’s why I can see that young players can sometimes surprise people and established names do not always perform as well as people expect them to perform. The hunger of a young player can sometimes be stronger than a player who is a name but cannot produce it.”

When many people might still struggle point out where Liberia is on the map you unearthed George Weah who went on to become World Player of the Year. You’ve produced countless players who are not just good, they are world class; what is the key to you being able to do that?

“Well first of all I’m a logical person and I think that a guy (player) with a ‘name’ was one day a guy without a ‘name’. So I thought what would be interesting is to find the guy before he gets a name and develop him into a guy who makes a ‘name’. Of course when you have worked at youth level you can understand that can happen and how you can achieve that. So I was always trying to get players who didn’t have a ‘name’ one day and turn them into the right man and develop them well then into a team player where we can produce what we are strong at, and that is basically my way of thinking.”

Is it equally important that the scouts you have working in countries worldwide are actually from these countries with local area knowledge and insight to spot the best young talent at a very young age?

“Yes I have a chief scout Steve Rowley who organises that and I take as well from every country people who are from the country, so they know their connections, they know the country well. I take as well people who have a sympathy for the kind of game that I want to play. We give them clear ideas about what kind of qualities we want from the players and what kind of football we want to play, so that they can identify what is suited to the kind of game we want to play.”

How difficult a balancing act is between building a young player’s confidence so that they believe they can live with the world’s best on the football pitch, whilst keeping their feet on the ground off it?

“If you want to make a career at a big club you must be capable to handle that side of your job. Time is a selector because you can have players who appear quickly to have a big talent but cannot handle keeping their feet on the ground and continue to improve, they will be eliminated. So always the people who last can handle that kind of pressure and that kind of way to handle your life. When you go out there (on the pitch) with the ball it must mean something to you and that helps you too. Of course you make mistakes at any age but what basically always brings you back on track is that deep love and deep motivation to be as good as you can be.”

Scotland and Wales with approx populations of 5 million and 3 million respectively have experienced problems at grass roots level. England have a population of 60 million but do you think that might be masking problems at grassroots level and that we may be about to experience similar problems?

“I feel that England was far behind for years in youth development, first of all because the responsibility of education at sports level was more down to schools than to football federations. When the schools gave a little bit up on sport education the whole sport in England suffered a lot. We had that same problem in France, but when the federations took charge of the education of their youth team players it improved very quickly and that is what England has done now for a while, and that’s why now you see English players coming through. On the other hand I feel as well, it’s not only the number but the concentration level by square kilometre of a number of people playing that is very important. For example, Holland with 15 million people have always produced big players, down to top level of quality at the youth level and have a concentration in a small country where people live together and the best (players) are confronted with the best (players) very quickly. That of course produces an elite. Brazil has 200 million people and always win the World Cup (laughs); they play against say Slovenia with 2 million people so the disproportion is too big to be comparable”

You have a knack of keeping your transfer deals under wraps, you don’t do your business in the public eye through the newspapers. In a football world dominated by agents how do you manage to do that?

“First of all we have a good level of connections, and then I feel as well that we are not scared to take a gamble on people. Also because I have a position at the club which is fairly strong; I benefit from a lot of confidence from the Board. Over the years when I have said ‘listen, I would like to do that deal’ they are for me always and nobody ever said ‘no, no, who’s he?’ They’ve said ‘if you feel its right then we will do it.’ So you need a strong Board and a strong confidence from the Board to achieve that. Basically apart from the connections and a scouting system the second part of it is a of course a Board that is completely behind you.”

There’s a lot of young managers starting out who look up to you and admire you; who inspired you as a young manager, who did you admire?

“A guy who I spent a lot of time with in my life is Mr (Max)Hild; he gave me the chance as a player (at Strasbourg), when I was a young player in his team he made me captain, he encouraged me to become a coach and gave me my first chance as a coach. So he was a big inspiration for me, he gave me my chance. Then of course I have been inspired by many coaches. The only other advice you can give (to young coaches) is don’t be scared to spend 7 days a week and any minute of your life for that job. That’s the only was you can be successful; you have to live really like a like a top level football player. You cannot spend your nights out or take time outs, it’s impossible you need to live (the job) and people going into the job must know that. It is not a part-time job, it is a 24 hours job and apart from the moments you sleep that is always in your head and you must be prepared to do that.”