COULD BOOK BY FORMER ARSENAL MANAGER INFORM GRIMSBY TOWN'S CHOICE OF NEXT BOSS?

Wenger's book - plenty of useful management insights

AS the Grimsby Town board members ponder whom to appoint as next manager, perhaps they could pick up tips from the autobiography of Arsene Wenger who won honours galore not just at Arsenal but also in France and Japan.

Wenger, now a TV pundit and chief of global development for FIFA, has plenty to say about what he reckons are the attributes of an effective  manager.

For instance, he pinpoints: 

* Giving people responsibilities

* Personalising

* Openness

* Clear and constant communication

He says the manager/ coach "must not forget that, in order to take others with him towards the values he advocates, he must embody these values himself".

He continues: "It is also essential that the player remembers that talent can go to waste if it is not accompanied by effort."

Wenger believes there needs to be "a kind of dissatisfaction within oneself which is often a kind of tension and which enables individual to move up to the next level".

Of a club, he says there are three things required for it to grow - 

strategy, planning and application.

The son of a football-made bistro-owner in Alsace, Wenger, who learnt his trade in lower leagues in France, has a comment to make about the importance of humility.

Says he: "Humility in sport is knowing that past performance gives you credibility but does not confer any privileges.

"Humility is the only thing that enables you to maintain the degree of vigilance that is essential for remaining steadfast."

Wenger reveals that he has always adhered to a strict personal discipline of rising at 5.30am each today, then spending two hours in the gym.

A staunch advocate of statistics and science in sport, he says these need to be used "in combination with a deep knowledge of the game".

But he acknowledges that players can be "demoralised by too great a use of statistics, no doubt because they feel their individuality is lost in the process".

Wenger's book, My Life in Red and White (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) has a list price of £25, but it has recently been available for as little as £10 at some supermarkets in Grimsby and Cleethorpes.

Sadly, it seems unlikely that the Frenchman could be tempted to give up his current life - which is spent in London, Paris and Zurich - to take the hot seat at Blundell Park.

But you never know . . .