EMMANUEL PETIT has revealed the major impact a brief training ground conversation with Arsene Wenger had on the rest of his life.
Wenger brought his fellow Frenchman to Arsenal in the summer of 1997 from his former club Monaco for a fee of £2.5million.
PAArsene Wenger brought Emmanuel Petit to Arsenal along with Marc Overmars in the summer of 1997[/caption]
NEWS GROUP NEWSPAPERS LTDWenger knew his country from his time in charge of Monaco[/caption]
NEWS GROUP NEWSPAPERS LTDA conversation he had with a teenager Petit still lives in the retired midfielder’s memory[/caption]
The pair, however, were already well acquainted as Wenger handed the defensive midfielder his professional debut with the Ligue 1 club.
A teenage Petit shone in that match against then big boys Sochaux but cut a dejected figure in training the following day.
Sensing something was up, Wenger pulled him for a chat – in which he gave the future France star a life lesson he’d never forget.
During an appearance on That Peter Crouch podcast, Petit said: “After that game, I was man of the match but the following day at the training session, it was a beautiful day on Sunday morning, and I was not happy at all.
“And I was very quiet, I didn’t talk to anyone. I knew I did something good the day before but for my first game, I should’ve been proud of it.
“But I was not happy at all and he asked me to have a meeting with him for a couple of minutes on the pitch.
“And he looked at me and he said, ‘Manu, if you want to discover what kind of player you can be on the pitch, you must discover what kind of human being you want to be in this world.’
“And he said, ‘If you are able to open your eyes, you will see the beautiful things in the world.
“There is not always bad things in the world.
“‘There are beautiful people and beautiful things. You just have to see and to look at [them] the right way.
“So he taught me lessons, but he was supporting me all the time.
“And he looked at me and he said, ‘That’s why I want you to go outside after the game.
“‘I want you to socialise with people to open your heart and your mind to people and you will discover the world is bigger than what you think in your head.’
“So I said, ‘Why are you asking [this] from me?’ He said, ‘I want you to go to nightclubs, I want you to have drinks.
“‘I want you to see girls or boys whatever you want.
“‘I want you to live your life to understand what kind of guy you can become and then I can help you to become a better player.’
REUTERSEmmanuel Petit will never forget that conversation he had with Arsene Wenger[/caption]
“So I said, ‘Gaffer, you ask me to go t nightclubs?’ So he said, ‘I trust you because we know everything behind players.
“‘We don’t have a spy at the club. We know because it’s a small town. We know exactly what’s going on in Monaco.
“‘And we know that every single when you finish your training session you go back home.
“‘Every time you finish the game you go back home. You don’t have a life. You live alone in the dark.’”
Petit would go on to make 118 appearances for Arsenal over a three-season period, in which he won the double with the North Londoners in the 1997/98 season.
He’d also make 63 appearances for his country, whom he scored for in a successful 1998 World Cup final against Brazil.
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