... engrossing, surprisingly poignant and often exasperatingly buttoned-up.

There are a million questions that Arsenal fans would want Wenger to answer. The answers, unfortunately, are either missing altogether from My Life in Red and White, or expressed in a way that is long familiar to us.

Leaving [José ] Mourinho out of his life story is like Balzac leaving Vautrin out of Père Goriot: it removes one of the essential engines of the plot. It also deprives us of one of the story’s most interesting characters. Wenger has explained that he wanted the book to be 'positive', which, from the reader’s point of view, is not the best motivation for writing a memoir.

... boring.

My Life In Red and White feels like a wasted opportunity, a weak penalty aimed straight down the middle. It starts well enough, with elegant reflections on Wenger’s childhood in Alsace.