Nigel Winterburn reveals how close he was to Chelsea move, gives fascinating insight into Wenger methods and draws Arteta/George Graham comparison

In the second part of an exclusive interview with Ladbrokes: Fanzone, former Arsenal defender Nigel Winterburn discusses his time under manager Arsene Wenger.

In part one Winterburn talked about the contract situations regarding Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli, Ben White’s England prospects, Gabriel, Kieran Tierney and the top-four battle.

I was a week away from signing for Chelsea before Arsenal

Not many people know this, but I nearly went to Chelsea the week before I signed for Arsenal. I actually went for talks with the club and I had no inclination that Arsenal were interested in me. Chelsea were also talking to Tony Dorigo at the time, and he came in at literally the same period I was speaking to the club, so of course that move never materialised.

But then, a few days later, Arsenal came in for me. I went to speak to them on my own and once I walked into Highbury, I was completely sold. I knew I was going to sign for them. It was just an incredible feeling.

If I’m being honest with you, I don’t think it was difficult for me to leave Wimbledon. Where they’d come from, the size of the club, I’ll forever be grateful to Dave Bassett because I spent a long time with the club, but when a team like Arsenal comes in for you, there’s just no hesitation whatsoever. Once I arrived at Highbury, it was already a done deal as far as I was concerned.

Arteta is emulating George Graham

Arsene Wenger brought in so many good players, but particularly in my time under him – that was when the whole style changed. He brought in his own beliefs about how he wanted us to play. It was a great time to be at the club. You walked out of the tunnel, home or away, with those guys Arsene brought in, and obviously teams did beat us, but you’d walk out thinking ‘there’s no way this lot walking alongside us can beat us’. That is an unbelievable feeling to have when you’re walking out to a crowd of tens of thousands of people.

George Graham was the one who started to change the tradition of the club, similarly to what Mikel Arteta is doing at the moment. He got rid of a lot of senior players, brought in the players that he wanted, and then Wenger took it on again and modified it. Let me tell you, if Mikel Arteta gets anywhere near the level of success those guys brought in his first few years in charge, there’s certainly going to be some exciting times ahead at the Emirates.

Arsene closed players’ bar when he arrived…he knew the score

People talk about the culture Arsene instilled around the club when he arrived, and in particular the changes he made to our diets. Did I change? Not one bit! I really struggled with the – if you want to call them – ‘proper’ lunches he wanted us to have. That was just a complete no-go for me, because I’d really suffer for the rest of the day! I had to be really careful with what I was doing and what I was eating, but so much of the food was plain, there were definitely no spices. He didn’t like us having sugar in our tea.

There were tablets, supplements and that sort of thing, but I never ever felt that there was a real pressure from him for us to completely conform. They were there, you could take them if you wanted, and if you didn’t, nothing was really made of it. I’m a big believer that if your level of performance is good enough, then – to a certain degree – I don’t think it concerns the manager what you’re up to.

The biggest thing he did which made sense for me from a diet perspective was in the immediate aftermath of games. He wanted us to rehydrate and certainly eat within an hour of full-time, particularly with away games. He was paranoid about getting players back onto the coach, the chef was there, the food was ready. Rehydration was key because he wanted us ready and prepared for training the next morning. For me that was the biggest change, and it’s something I took on board very quickly. He hated you having a pint of lager or two after the game, that’s for sure! He shut the players’ bars at the ground – they were closed. He knew what was happening and what had been going on.

It was an educational thing for us all, and it’s something everyone bought into. But there were limits. As long as you were performing and you weren’t being an idiot, then everything was fine.

Wenger was told to get rid of his back four – I’m glad he didn’t!

There was never a time in the four years I spent with Arsene Wenger where I thought he was in any way under pressure. Let me tell you, that journey with him was immense. It was incredible. I cannot speak highly enough of him. Obviously I won the double with him in 1998, which was my only success with him, but if you look at everything he did at the club, I’d say if you were an Arsenal supporter in those first 10 years, he had you in dreamland.

In the period I played under him, it was just like going out and playing Sunday League football, when you turn up with your mates and look across the car park at the other team and you’re thinking ‘how are they going to beat us?’ It was a bit like that under Wenger. It was all about the movement of the ball. It wasn’t the responsibility of the player on the ball, it was up to his team-mates around him to give him options and make space. Keep the ball moving, communicate, work for each other, fight for each other. It just gave us the freedom to go and play.

He inherited the back four and goalkeeper, and he knew we all knew our jobs very well. He just put quality in front of us and kept on reinforcing it and reinforcing it until eventually he had to change the defensive line.

There were some rumours floating around that he’d been told he needed to get rid of that back four and replace us, to break us up a little bit. But Arsene Wenger is his own man and he makes his own decisions. Yes, you have to move with the times. I’m not saying we were mischievous or weren’t willing to learn or adapt. Me personally, I’m very pleased he decided to keep us all together, and it worked out for him!

I admired Arsene for how he told me I was past it

I don’t know anyone from the club who has ever fallen out with Arsene Wenger. Even when he left you out of the team, even when I left the club and he came up to me and said: “Nigel, we really appreciate what you’ve done at the club. We still want you here but we’re going to have to start making changes.”

Basically he was telling me he was going to start leaving me out of the team. Sylvinho had come in and he was going to take my position. And I was thinking ‘I should be furious with this guy… he’s basically telling me I’m finished!’ He did it in a nice way, but that’s basically what he was getting at.

And even though he told me that, I had nothing but admiration for Arsene Wenger. I wasn’t cross with him, I wasn’t angry. I wanted to show him that there was still a bit left in me, but towards the end, I didn’t want to play second fiddle. One thing I didn’t like was that when I was out of the team and I came in, it didn’t matter how well I’d played, I knew I wasn’t keeping my place. That was a new experience for me. I never had to deal with that, going all the way back to when I came into the Wimbledon team. The only time that ever happened to me was in the first six months of joining Arsenal.

I’d basically had a run of year after year of playing regularly. Even when I was injured, I’d play when I could. And then all of a sudden I had this realisation that actually I wasn’t first choice, and no matter how well I played, I wouldn’t be starting the following week. I couldn’t deal with that. That’s the only reason I asked to leave the club.

But Wenger was just incredible. This guy had this unbelievable way about him, where he could make you feel good even when he was telling you that you were bad…it was ridiculous!

I really thought in those final years of my career that I was going to retire at Arsenal but it wasn’t to be. I went to West Ham and had a fantastic time. I still felt there was a bit left in me and for the first couple of seasons with West Ham it was great. The third year was very difficult. I lost my dad in that season and obviously we got relegated. That was a weird feeling because all of a sudden football didn’t mean anything to me.

I regret not saying proper goodbye at Arsenal

I’m an emotional person. I couldn’t go around saying goodbye to everyone when I left Arsenal. It probably sounds a bit callous, but the easiest thing for me to do was to take my stuff and basically sneak out of the back door. So for the people at the club, it was very much “where’s Nigel gone?”, “oh, he’s left, he’s gone to West Ham”.

I didn’t want to go through all of those goodbyes. It would have just been too hard for me. I didn’t want to go through all of those emotions. I spent 13 years there, so that’s why I just packed up my things and went to West Ham without any fanfare and that was it.

I think in an ideal world, if I’m looking back, it’s something I wish I’d have done. I still see a lot of the guys from time to time, but saying goodbye to everyone behind the scenes is probably something I should have done. When you’re in that position, you do what you think is right, and if I’m honest with you, I don’t know whether I’d have been able to face all of that hand-shaking and back-patting. In my head I was thinking about the new job and the new journey, when really I should have taken the time to say my goodbyes properly.

The best player to walk through the door in my time at Arsenal was…

Arsene Wenger brought in some sensational players over the years. Emmanuel Petit and Nicolas Anelka were right up there for me as players with really high quality. But I think when Patrick [Vieira] came, he was a giant of a man – a young man. He was such a powerful player, and he turned out to be unbelievable. I know a lot of people talk about these players when they turn up in training for the first time and just have that ‘wow’ factor. I’m not so much interested in that, but rather what that player can do on the pitch when it comes to matchday. Vieira certainly produced those high-level performances for us very, very quickly.

But I think, overall, when you look at where he started versus where he finished, it’s hard to look past Thierry Henry when it comes to that one standout player. I only spent one season with him and, if I’m honest, I don’t really think I was ever that confident that he’d go on to achieve the things he did in his time with the club, but boy oh boy, he was ridiculously good.

You talk about the Premier League and the expectation on certain players in certain positions, but this guy wasn’t even a traditional centre-forward, but he took up that position and drifted a lot to the left-hand side. His pace, his power and his ability scared a lot of defenders, I can tell you that much. He would turn a game on his head through sheer ability.