Arsenal have a goalkeeper crisis but ex-Gunner Jens Lehmann still walks tall

Mad Jens: Stuttgart 'keeper Jens Lehmann



On Mercedesstrasse, in downtown Stuttgart, underneath one of those city centre flyovers that used to be called futuristic, a smile begins to crack across the face of Jens Lehmann.



As it widens, Lehmann says: ‘Fan-tastic! I realised that day how fantastic football in England was. I called home and said, “It’s fantastic, the people here punch and push each other and they don’t even get booked!” Fan-tastic.’



The smile stayed. Lehmann was rewinding to September 2003, to only his eighth Arsenal game, to Old Trafford, to Ruud van Nistelrooy, Martin Keown, Patrick Vieira’s red card and one of the dust-ups of the decade.



Now 40, Lehmann is into the last four months of a 22-year career. He is starting an appraisal.



‘Man U won a penalty on a dive by Van Nistelrooy,’ says Lehmann. ‘All of a sudden there was a big clash of players and everybody punched each other.



‘But the referee didn’t book anyone!



'So Van Nistelrooy had this chance to score in the 88th minute and he’d never failed before from the spot. But this time he hit the crossbar. The game ended 0-0.

‘About three days later I realised there was this big inquiry into the incident. I think three from United got suspended and four of us.’



Lehmann laughs at his lack of awareness. All but one of his previous 15 professional years had been spent in the Bundesliga, so it was forgivable. England was new and, even if he sometimes gave the opposite impression, Lehmann loved it.

Arsene Wenger pulled off one of his shock transfers when he acquired the German a couple of months before that Old Trafford furore.

Clash: Martin Keown clashes with Ruud van Nistelrooy in Lehmann's first season



Lehmann, then 33, was signed for £1.2million from Borussia Dortmund as David Seaman’s successor and England soon got to know the eccentric character Arsenal players referred to as ‘Mad Jens’.



But Wenger’s choice was quickly vindicated. In his first season Lehmann became an ‘Invincible’, going the entire League campaign undefeated.



The reason he was talking about that match at United was because that was the closest he feels Arsenal came to losing. In fact, it was United who were later to end that record-breaking run of 49 unbeaten games.

Relishing memories of the bust-up, he adds: ‘A year later there was “Pizzagate”. We lost to a Rooney dive. I was in the tunnel, of course, and I saw ... I can’t tell you what I saw. Ferguson was, eh...



‘I’m writing a book. So I’m keeping that. It’s due in May. But I don’t want to hurt myself. I have a decision: if I never, ever want to work in football again, I can write a great book.



'But, just in case I want to stay in the game, I can soften it. The decision hasn’t been made.



‘Arsene Wenger doesn’t need to fear anything. He already knows I’m angry because he didn’t pick me in my last year — but only on a professional basis.’

Adored: Arsenal fans loved their eccentric goalkeeper and paid him a massive tribute on his final game for the club in 2007

In fact, after Lukasz Fabianski’s Porto debacle, the Arsenal boss may feel he has not yet replaced Lehmann, whose birth certificate must come with a question mark.

As the Invincibles’ season confirms, his is a career of regular high achievement. Lehmann has won league titles in England, Germany and Italy, where he was with AC Milan for a season. He has won the UEFA Cup and the FA Cup. He has played in European Championships and World Cups for Germany, won 61 caps and appeared, albeit briefly, in a European Cup final.



But when we think of Lehmann it is Mad Jens, not medals, that comes to mind. It felt like a rude place to take the conversation, but what does Lehmann think of this overshadowing reputation for eccentricity?



‘Spot on,’ is the snappy reply. It was not the expected answer. But then Lehmann’s unpredictability is established.



Stuttgart host Barcelona in the first leg of the last 16 of the Champions League on Tuesday. It is the first time Lehmann has faced them since the 2006 final in Paris, when he was sent off after 18 minutes for a foul on Samuel Eto’o. Arsenal lost 2-1.



‘I had some bad feelings about myself,’ he says of the incident. ‘It was spur of the moment, me stretching out to touch Eto’o, and you can’t reverse it.’



Yet we need to go back a mere three months, to Stuttgart’s last Champions League group game against Unirea Urziceni, for Lehmann’s last controversy, or alleged controversy, as he sees it.

Low ebb: Lehmann brings down Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o in the Champions League Final (above) and gets sent off (below)









During the match, he was caught short, leapt over an advertising hoarding and relieved himself. Then he ran back into position as the opposition attacked. It was Sunday League stuff. Germany was staggered — ‘Pee-peegate’.

The country was just getting over him taking a helicopter to training. Others are probably still talking about his Shilton-Clemence rivalry with Oliver Kahn for the national jersey.

As he has got older the noise surrounding Lehmann has increased, not faded. So how was his Unirea-urinal activity regarded?

'It was regarded as worth reporting,’ Lehmann says dismissively, the only time he cools. ‘It is what it is. Sometimes things that happen to me are perceived as being eccentric.



'Those things happen to other people, but in my case those things are highlighted more. I have to cope with that.



‘Sometimes the media here are over the top. There are not a lot of personalities in the German league. I underestimated that.

International rivals: Lehmann (above) kept Oliver Kahn (below) out of the German team for the 2006 World Cup



‘There are many big stars in England, in and outside football, particularly in London. I was small there, which I really appreciated. But after the last World Cup my image here changed, to that of a hero. I underestimated that.’



Lehmann’s excellence in the World Cup quarter-final shoot-out against Argentina — he had made notes on their takers’ preferences — enabled him to make saves which altered his image at home.



That took some doing. As a young keeper at Schalke he had once been replaced at half-time after being booed. Lehmann left the ground, borrowed some money and took the tram home.



‘It was a complete humiliation,’ he says.



After Milan, whom he regrets leaving too soon — ‘they told me to be patient; I wasn’t’ — he joined Schalke rivals Borussia Dortmund.



‘In Dortmund I had to experience really bad things,’ he recalls. ‘I was targeted in my private life by some people. That wasn’t easy. They insulted my wife, me, my new-born child.



'I was so angry I could have ... but when we won the title and got to the UEFA Cup final, most understood I gave everything.’



In Germany’s defence, understanding Lehmann is not straightforward. He says he may not retire in May — ‘look at Michael Schumacher’ — though he adds of his unpredictability: ‘What I think you can say that is predictable is my performance. I’ve been consistent.



‘In all the teams I’ve played in, we have won something, except for Stuttgart and we’re still in the Champions League.’



He laughs again. Stuttgart are ninth in the Bundesliga, Barcelona are European champions.



'It’s possible! There’s a chance.’



And, with Jens Lehmann, you never know.



