The hand of friendship only came when Fergie knew he was no longer a worthy opponent basically they called a truce to gang up on Mourinho & Benitez.
Like you say in those early days he took Fergie on and not many had done that and to be fair to him he got the better of him for a while and had him rattled. His early Arsenal sides were brilliant the mixture of silk and steel. Some real nasty players but lots of very skillful boys around them.
People say he changed English football all he really did was get Arsenal up to the standard Utd were setting he booted out the drinkers, sorted out the diets, modernised the training methods all things Fergie did at Utd 10 years earlier. I do think he went a bit further with that which gave him the edge for a while.
I did feel sorry for him at the end with Arsenal he should have left them with that FA Cup win think they still made top 4 that season so he still had that record to cling to but he was so desperate to go out on the top.
Think he's made a wise move stepping away completely probably wise given how toxic it was at the end.