When Arsene Wenger met Nagoya Grampus Eight chairman Shoichiro Todoya he was told that he wanted to make Nagoya the greatest club in Japan and the world within 100 years.
Some would define that statement as a reachable dream and it certainly dovetailed with Wenger’s own footballing philosophy, as he admitted in an interview with French TV three years ago.
“That negates the pressure of immediacy in a fabulous way,” said Wenger.
“What becomes of a loss if you project your destiny on a century? I also found that idea extremely generous. Only being a conveyor belt in history, as a part of a movement that is much larger than you are. Being part of something that is beyond you. Unfortunately, we live too often with the idea that the world is going to stop after us. That is not humanity.”
Wenger arrived in Japan over two decades ago without being able to speak the language fluently and the man tasked with helping him pass his message on to the rest of the Grampus Eight squad was a man named Go Murakami.
“It was in 1995 and it was my first job as an interpreter,” Murakami told Goal.
“I heard he came from Monaco and I didn’t know about him but everyone said he was a good manager from France. I was told ‘Go, you’re in charge of Mr Wenger’. I spent one-and-a-half years at Grampus Eight and I was always with him, he was a hard worker.”
“At the beginning we had a seven or eight game losing streak, it was difficult at first. He [Wenger] knew everything about nutrition and the mental side, how to control the players. He tried to adapt to the Japanese style, we were just at the beginning in terms of football.
“He took it back to the basics, how to control, trap the ball and pass. Everybody said it was like going back to school but he thought we needed these things - the basics are important.
“With nutrition he controlled everything. If vegetables or orange juice had more acid - they were out. Before the day of the game we would have pasta or chicken without any oil. After we kept winning everybody got used to his ideas and understood how it benefited the team.
“I think Japanese players are disciplined. They follow all the instructions and show respect through saying ‘arigato gozaimas’ [thank you very much]. He likes the culture and the people.”
Gaman is a Japanese term which means "enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity". The self discipline needed to push on to the next level as a professional footballer is a facet that has made Wenger’s methods famous since he joined Arsenal in 1996, and Murakami reflects on the Frenchman’s time with Nagoya as being alongside a “philosopher” of the game.
“For me he is like a philosopher. He speaks with proverbs. For example, he would say ‘Go, football is very simple but playing simple is very difficult’ - I love this kind of thinking.
“I have lots of memories with my time with Arsene. He’s always watching videos and analysing the next game. Boro Primorac [now Arsenal first team coach] was here too, he’s a kind of funny guy. Wenger is more strict. I went to Arsene’s house one day and he was watching a video, Boro was sitting down next to us eating some snacks. I said ‘boss, can I go home’, he said yes 'OK, go home'. The next day I asked Boro how long Arsene was watching football for and he told me he stayed up until three in the morning. He’s always like this.
“Boro stayed with him in the same apartment and he was always joking. My memory of Arsene is that he’s always watching and thinking about football. Football wise he’s a specialist and he likes it.”
Wenger guided Grampus Eight to their first title win in January 1996 and was finally reunited with Murakami when Arsenal toured Japan in 2013. The Gunners played a pre-season friendly against Nagoya where Murakami rejoined as translator and Wenger’s former star player Dragan Stojkovic was now manager.
Murakami revealed what Wenger said to him when the Arsenal club photographer snapped a photo of the two joking around ahead of the friendly match press conference.
"He said 'Go, it’s a good suit. But you haven’t changed'. That photo was four years ago at Arsenal's Asia Tour. Pixie was the head coach and Wenger was here, there was a press conference and I was translating. It was a great moment"
Meanwhile, the framework installed by Wenger at Nagoya still lays bare today. Murakami left the club in the summer of 2017 but to this day he keeps in contact with the Arsenal manager, a man who he says has the "same vision" as himself.
“Carlos Queiroz came in later on and I also interpreted for him but the results were not so good. I left [Grampus Eight] in 2003 and spent four years abroad as a coach in Palau - a small country in the pacific. In 2008 Pixie [Stojkovic] became head coach and Grampus asked me to come back to Japan to be interpreter as I knew him as a player.
“We were in a good way after that and first we won the championship in 2010, after that in 2011 we only needed one point to become champion but finished as runners-up.”
“From my point of view the basics are important. My vision is the same as Arsene’s, I follow his instructions. He spent 20 years at Arsenal. To stay more than 20 years in one club is amazing and I think his personality and character is loved by staff and directors. Once he’s familiar with somebody he always takes care of that person, that’s why I still keep contact with him.
Wenger himself admitted that Nagoya “haven’t made much progress” since he left them but he still offers the club advice when called upon. The Arsenal boss says that his spell in Japan changed him as a manager and human being, with English football undoubtedly better off for the Frenchman's multi-cultural experiences abroad.
“What I enjoyed about sumo in Japan is that at the end of the fight, the winner never celebrates so as to not humiliate the loser", said Wenger.
"When I see the behaviour and the excesses in some countries, I think the values the Japanese culture conveys or the English sense of values are remarkable.”
This interview was originally conducted in November 2016.
