On Alex Manninger

Morning.

Hope you’re all well this Friday. I don’t really know where to begin, to be honest. I’ve done as much introspection as I can about the Sporting game. We won. We’re through. That is the most important thing. And I just can’t bring myself to write anything more about how we’re playing and how I feel about that. Then sometimes the universe gives you a great big slap of perspective. Which is what we got yesterday with the news of Alex Manninger’s passing.

For those of a certain vintage, this will resonate. His contribution to that 1997-98 double season was incredible. Arsenal had struggled through the winter, form was patchy, and it was in December, after defeat to Blackburn, that the famous/infamous team meeting took place. Strong words and home truths were spoken, and the only game we lost after that point and clinching the title in early May was a league cup tie at Stamford Bridge where Patrick Vieira was sent off and we had to play with 10 men.

That question of ‘If you had a time machine and you could go back to witness any moment in history, what would it be?’, has often made me think of that meeting and whether I could be a fly on the wall while they all went at it. Now, when you think of the strengths of personality in that dressing room, with that English contingent, Dennis Bergkamp, Vieira et al, it must have been feisty.

But, in January, David Seaman picked up an injury, and Arsene Wenger had to turn to his number two keeper, a 20 year old Austrian who had signed from Grazer AK the previous summer. It’s quite funny how things change in football. Now, we worry about having competent back up for our number 1 goalkeeper, and some will fret about what happens if the back-up and the first choice are out. ‘We need a decent number 3!’.

Back then, it was a more simple time. You just got some lad. Think of the Invincibles season when Graham Stack sat on the bench 38 times in the league – he went on to have a solid journeyman career, but the drop off between himself and Jens was considerable. And in Alex Manninger, Arsenal got some lad from Austria, who then went on to make an indelible mark on the history of this club.

Seaman’s injury, despite some iffy form that season, was a blow. It’d be like David Raya getting injured now and rather than hugely experienced international keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga to call on (for better or worse!), Mikel Arteta had to turn to Tommy Setford, a promising young player with scant top level experience. Manninger had played a couple of League Cup games in late ’97, but this was a team hunting down Manchester United for the title, a prize the club hadn’t won since 1991. Talk about pressure.

He kept a clean sheet in his first Premier League appearance, a 3-0 win at home to Southampton. At that point we were 8 points behind United with a game in hand. There was another clean sheet at home to Chelsea, one more at home in a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace, another away to West Ham, then the rearranged fixture against Wimbledon after the abandoned game in December because the floodlights were found to have been tampered with by a ‘far Eastern betting syndicate’. Mad when you think of it now, eh?

The win that day closed an 11 point gap to 8 again, which went back 9 after United drew 1-1 with West Ham. That set up the now famous Old Trafford game, the Gunners with still lots of ground to make up, but with three games in hand. That day will be remembered primarily for the Marc Overmars goal, Peter Schmeichel’s hamstring, the Arsenal fan in the stands going mad as he celebrated, and a win which meant it was in our hands to go on and win the league after so long.

Let’s not forget our goalkeeper though, who made a really good save after a Lee Dixon error had presented a very good chance to Teddy Sheringham, of all people, and there was another one from Andy Cole which was vital too. For me, there was just something about Manninger that made it easy to connect with him. He was like the polar opposite of David Seaman – ‘Safe Hands’, cool, calm, collected, experienced.

It was almost – and I say this with the most sincere affection – like playing a puppy in goal. There was an infectious enthusiasm about how he went about his job. There were times when you’d see him and think ‘What are you doing all the way out there?!’, but you couldn’t help love it at the same time. His youthful exuberance, that willingness to do whatever it took to try and stop a goal, however unconventional, was hard to resist. He played like if one of us had been called from the crowd and given the jersey (but a lot better, obviously).

Eventually Seaman returned as we continued that relentless drive to the title, and despite Manninger’s heroics in the FA Cup quarter-final with West Ham, saving a key penalty in the shoot-out, it was the number one keeper who played the cup final. There was none of this ‘Be kind to the number 2’ stuff back then. We won that game 2-0, clinched the double, and despite not playing as many Premier League games as necessary to qualify for a medal because of the rules at that time, special dispensation was received for him to be rightly awarded one.

Although Alex made a big breakthrough that season, he could never do enough to dislodge Seaman. In all, he played 64 times for Arsenal, before continuing his career at places like Siena, Augsburg, Fiorentina, Juventus, Salzburg and others, as well as 33 caps for Austria. Maybe his career didn’t quite hit the heights you might have imagined as he burst onto the scene in 1998, but as much as anyone he played a pivotal role in a success that was both overdue for Arsenal, and foundational for what Arsene Wenger’s team would go on to achieve in the years ahead.

His death yesterday at the age of 48 is a reminder to all of us that each moment we have is precious. At a time when we’re all so worried about the future, and what might happen on Sunday, let’s not forget about the now, and allow ourselves to be reminded that Arsenal have overcome bigger odds to go the distance before.

Alex Manninger was a key part of that. We send our condolences to his family and friends, and may he rest in peace.

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