Arsene Wenger and David Seaman reveal how England team ‘killed’ Arsenal after Gary Neville spying
ARSENE WENGER and David Seaman have revealed how the England team “killed” Arsenal’s tactical advantage under Wenger.
Wenger was interviewed by Seaman as part of his podcast and the two traded tales from yesteryear.
One of those consisted of Seaman’s time with the England squad in the early 2000s when Gary Neville “spied” on the Arsenal team.
Arsenal and England shared the same nutritionist, Dr John Crane, who was at the cutting edge of sports science and nutrition.
Dr Crane had the Arsenal players following a specialist diet at the time, and this continued while the players were on England duty.
Seaman said: “We went to England and we were on our special diet. And we were eating it, but I’ll always remember this boss… Gary Neville looked over to our table and was like ‘What are they eating over there? Why aren’t they eating the same as us? We’re a team! We should be eating the same!’
“So that’s how he found out about what we were eating and then he took it back to Man United.”
Wenger then said: “They copied us! The English national team killed us!”
Arsenal and Manchester United became one of the fiercest rivalries in English football after Wenger took over Arsenal in 1996.
Arsenal won three Premier Leagues between his takeover in 1996 and 2004 and four FA Cups between 1996 and 2005.
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In that period, Manchester United, under Sir Alex Ferguson won five Premier Leagues, a Champions League, two FA Cups and a League cup.
The two’s fierce rivalry was most famously symbolised by 2004’s “Battle of the Buffet” which saw police called to break up a fight between the two squads and a slice of pizza thrown at Sir Alex Ferguson by Cesc Fabregas.
The two clubs’ duopoly at the top of the Premier League was only really broken by Chelsea‘s takeover by Roman Abramovich in 2003.
The financial implications of the construction of The Emirates stadium also heavily affected Arsenal’s ability to compete with Manchester United towards the end of Wenger’s tenure.
However, his reign did end with a flurry of success, with the club winning the FA Cup three times between 2014 and 2017.