Arsène Wenger brings Champion fever to Lexus Edgware Road

‘Champion’ fever engulfed Lexus Edgware Road when Arsenal Football Club Manager Arsène Wenger officially opened the UK’s largest Lexus Centre at its special launch event last night (23rd October 2008).

Fresh from his team’s 2-5 win against Fenerbahce in Turkey on Tuesday night in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League, Mr Wenger posed for photographs and signed autographs as he milled with the 500 guests at the event.

LS 600h driver Mr Wenger received a rapturous welcome from guests, which given the north London location, not surprisingly contained a high number of Arsenal supporters who were clearly delighted with the team’s victory which was undoubtedly Arsenal’s best win in Europe since that legendary 5-1 victory at Inter Milan five years ago.

Before taking up his post at Arsenal Mr Wenger, managed Japan’s Grampas Eight team and it was here that he first came into contact with Lexus and sister brand Toyota. When he took to the stage, he spoke at length about his Japanese connection which continues today – the team send any new manager to be vetted by the Frenchman prior to appointment – which is very close to the hearts of many of the Japanese-owned parent company Toyota Tsusho Corporation dignitaries. Many of the senior TTC personnel including President Junzo Shimizu took the trip from Japan especially for the opening event.

Said Mr Wenger: “When I went to manage the team in Japan I told them I only wanted 20 players and they gave me 35. I thought it would be easy to ‘kill’ some of them off with a tough training regime. The first day I turned up for training, I couldn’t find the players – they were all on the pitch training already – that never happens!

“Three weeks into my strict training sessions and I still had 35 players. I had never seen such dedication and at each session each player gave 100%. Selecting those 20 players was one of the toughest things I’ve ever done.”

He added: “There are a lot of similarities between England and Japan. These are two nations living on two islands with an immense amount of national pride. Both nations have so much passion about everything they do. I feel very privileged, very happy and very lucky with my life – for two reasons: Japan and England.

“It was in Japan where I first came into contact with Lexus and Toyota and subsequently developed a strong relationship with the company,” Mr Wenger explained. “The company’s attitude was very similar to mine – I soon realised how much they wanted to do well and how they wanted to achieve perfection.

“I had always felt to be successful you had to have aggression but they do things differently in Japan: people simply respect each other and I discovered that this approach really works.

“As a manager, whether you’re in business or football, you always feel a lot of pressure. You must continue to be an optimist to get the best out of people and although the temptation is to transfer that pressure onto the people under you, but that takes something away from them. If there’s anything I’ve learnt from all my experiences, it’s to keep that positive attitude with you at all times.

“I am very fortunate to have the association with the club in Japan, Toyota and Lexus and, of course, Arsenal – every morning when I wake up, I feel that it’s a privilege to go to work.”

Among the fans who attended the launch and met Mr Wenger was 10-year-old Jad Fakir from Finchley, he said: “It was the best, totally amazing!”

Jad attended with his mother Savita, who drives an RX 400h from Lexus Edgware Road, she said: “Arsène Wenger was very good particularly with the children, signing autographs and posing for photographs. It was fantastic to hear him speak – it was very good in particular for all the children and young people to hear him talk about dedication, hard work and striving for perfection. He is an inspiration and I hope they go away and take on board what he has said.”