Lauren reveals Arsene Wenger began to hide in training due to blazing rows

Lauren revealed how combative Arsenal’s training sessions were when they were at the height of their powers and even Arsene Wenger couldn’t stand to get in the middle of arguments..

French right-back Lauren played alongside some fantastic players and was part of the Invincibles’ squad which included Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira.

Lauren remembered he and his team-mates would constantly get into bust-ups in training and explained Wenger would go missing when a game was organised.

He told the Guardian: ‘When there was a game, Wenger would say: “Who’s the ref?”

‘Pat Rice, [former equipment manager] Paul Johnson, [assistant coach] Boro Primora…No one wanted it.

‘Wenger was clever – he got out of there, went to the corner, hid and just watched.

‘Pat was the bravest and he’d end up arguing with everyone. There was argument after argument.

‘Freddie [Ljungberg] with this guy, Martin [Keown] with that guy, me with someone else. Bergkamp was a genius but he was also incredibly competitive. That’s why we won.

‘Why did Thierry Henry become Arsenal’s all-time top scorer? Talent?

‘Because he was really good and a great athlete? No. Because he wanted to be the best every single day of his life.

‘He never ducked a game, never said: “I’ve got a knock”. The session finished and he’d stay to take shots, practise diagonal runs.

‘On the bus, Henry, me, Edu and Vieira played cards and Henry got angry if he lost. You can laugh but it was like that.

‘If you didn’t give him the ball, if he didn’t score, he would get mad. It was horrific.

‘I’ve had confrontations with Henry and Vieira, Vieira with Martin Keown, Keown with Henry, Henry with Ljungberg, everyone.

‘There was one at Riazor against Deportivo when Henry stopped and raised his arms at me. Bloody hell,’ Lauren added.

‘You should have seen our training sessions. It’s a good job journalists weren’t there, it would have been horrible. When Gilberto Silva came and saw how we trained.’

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