Arsene Wenger has admitted the prospect of retirement scares him as he contemplates a life without the day to day of football management.
The Frenchman is in the last year of his current Arsenal contract, and as yet his intentions remain unclear. Seasoned Wenger watchers wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted to continue, but much will depend on how this season plays out.
Speaking about the prospect of leaving Arsenal and his role as a manager, he said, “It’s been my life and, honestly, I’m quite scared of the day.
“The longer I wait, the more difficult it will be and the more difficult it will be to lose the addiction.”
He also cited a conversation with Alex Ferguson that failed to provide any clarity for him.
“After Alex retired and we played them over there he sent a message to me to come up and have a drink with him.
“I asked: ‘Do you miss it?’ He said: ‘Not at all.’ I didn’t understand that. It’s an emptiness in your life, especially when you’ve lived your whole life waiting for the next game and trying to win it.”
Whatever your opinion of the manager, there’s little doubt that football and Arsenal is his life’s work, but at 66 (he’ll be 67 in October), he can’t go on forever.
What would he replace it with? Maybe someone could buy him an enormous jigsaw with a couple of pieces missing …
Damn… that’s how you wear a scarf!
So when the day finally comes who do we want to step in? I can’t think of anyone that’s a perfect fit…
Board will ask Wenger to help find somebody. Hope he does better than Ferguson in this area.
He would struggle to do much worse
Really? For fucksake.
Moyes? Van Gaal?
Based on the current down votes, I think you should stick to being an importer/exporter.
Clearly Anonymarse meant ‘much worse than Ferguson’ – I think it is indisputable that his Moyes idea wasn’t great.
Considering the massive change the footballing landscape in England and the flush of more tv money, it is of fundamental importance that he carry on for two more years at least, to see this transitional period as he does earlier leading the club from mediocrity to the level of strength it has now, I think we need to stabilise this position and he the best man for the job to do that.
I’d take Brenda the tea lady if she bought a striker with her
Klopp would have been awesome but it looks like that ship has sailed.
Koeman is another obvious possibility
Agree, Koeman has the stature for our club (and Simeone will not come).
Bergkamp, that’s the guy I want. In long term future, Henry. Wenger and other coaches said Henry had a remarkable knowledge and awareness of tactical details. As a player, Henry knew every detail about opposing players before the game. Wenger said that after a game Henry could tell you exactly how he scored a goal: The keeper was on the wrong foot, the defender on the wrong side and he went the other way etc… Aguero and strikers like that make same decisions by instinct but they are not aware of it the way Henry used to. Think Henry has… Read more »
Had u forgot he dont do flying
Simeone!
Love and respect the man but I don’t want him to be part of picking our next manager. He will go for an unknown who plays his style of football when we need someone with a big name and experience to steady the ship when the players we have get nervous about the change.
I think Bilic is getting ready for becomming our next manager. He would be good.
Yes, Bilic can be a candidate, I forgot.
Yes is young, talented, ambitionned and has a completely new style, we should not hope for a Wenger copy, but be able to make a fresh start, just as when Wenger arrived.
Ancelotti would be a perfect transition to the post-Wenger era, before we get (hopefully) our next long-term manager: accomplished; experienced; level headed; classy guy. Unfortunately he’s at Bayern for the forseeable future, so…
And we, in turn, are scared you won’t spend what we need to get the targets we absolutely need to have a successful campaign.
There is a place and time…
…and it was weeks or months ago, not six days before the start of the season, or on deadline day, or not at all. Honestly, I’m kind of done with the philosophizing and psychoanalysis. The most important thing is Arsenal, and we’re not getting the job done when it comes to improving the squad.
So thanks for the big “FUCK YOU” to Xhaka.
I hate it whenever people hate on this legend. He always has and always will love the club more than anyone else. If you read the whole article he talks about the ‘love of his life – Highbury’, his ‘addiction to Arsenal’ and the ‘scary’ prospect of ‘retiring’. Really hope that it isn’t his last season but if it is I really hope he bows out with the Premier League and the Champions League. Yes he hasn’t won the league in 12 years but you cannot fault his commitment or attitude. That picture of him after the 2006 CL final… Read more »
Thank you for being a rare voice of reason.
Cheers for that Ivan
During the Invincible campaign we reached the roof of the european football. In terms of quality on the pitch, we were right there with Real, Barcelona etc… and being better than Man U domestically. It was lack of ambitions for dummies to disband that group to pay for the stadium. We would have paid the stadium a little faster reaching CL final every year keeping same squad and renewing with Fabregas and a couple of players like him.
Clearly a Gunner who chats bare sh*t. Yes we were 49 not out but truly have we ever been up there with Barca or real? Why didn’t we win the CL then? Atop dream boating. We are a quality team with a quality manager and I truly trust this with my life. Wenger for life. Support him but don’t act like the we’ve had years and years of good old days
Buddy, you’ve got to go watch the 5-1 trashing of INTER again. INTER was then a very big team.
Yes, but it still wasn’t up there with Real Madrid.
And if he doesn’t finish his last season with a title because he left gaping, obvious holes in the team?
Everybody loves and respects him, but for crying out loud it’s so obvious that it is time to go. The way he fiddled about this summer, again, has left this team unprepared. Over and over with the same results. And the whole conservative spending thing is crap. If you bought the pieces you need, you’d win more games and trophies. In turn, you make more CL tv revenue, shirt revenue, and gain more global appeal and attract more sponsors. All of this equals more $$$$. And let’s not forget that this is what was promised to the fans when the… Read more »
I’m convinced that most people complaining about ticket prices don’t even go to games.
Perhaps because they cant afford to?
I go to two to three matches a year, but the point is that the cost does not match the calibre of team or results. It’s not about money for me, ot’s the reality that the outcome will not change!
I’m with you on this man.
spot on! well said RL7
I’d honestly like to see him as Director of Football or an equivalent rank..with the man replacing him trusted more with role of a coach, while Arsene uses his vast experience and knowledge to assist in things behind the scenes.
Love the man but – spend some money!
Yup. But remember, you have to spend it like it’s your own money, apparently! [crying]
But what if the top players you all desperately crave don’t want Arsenal to spend lots of money on them? They are people, not chocolate bunnies. They won’t come to us if they don’t want to. They might have other plans. “Spend some money”, or as it used to be, “Spend some fucking money” doesn’t work unless the player(s) in question want to come to Arsenal. Offering more money doesn’t work any better on somebody who doesn’t want to be an Arsenal player. If I offer you large amounts of money to stick your willy in a blender, but you… Read more »
If he’s scared of this being his last season, Then why isn’t he spending to improve the squad?
Because it might not be his last season and it would be nice if there was an Arsenal to come back to.
“but at 66 (he’ll be 67 in October)”
So, what you’re trying to is, he’s 67.
Pity about the typo but that’s some funny shit right there!
He’s 66. Fact
Him not retiring scares me more.
Oh that last sentence…
Yes indeed that last sentence. Hope he reads it.
He is going to be incredibly hard to replace. Garry Monk, Roberto Martinez and Villas-Boas (before Chelsea) were all names the media have thrown up in the past as they became flavour of the month, and I think it’s safe to say if we hired any of them we’d be doing considerably worse. I was hoping for Unai Emery but that ship has sailed, so in all honesty I don’t know who could now replace Wenger when the time comes, and I’m going to take a guess that the board has even less of a clue
I was hoping for Emery too.
Hopefully he will leave that kiddy club PSG and go manage a real club
He’s pretty much guaranteed success at PSG. They’ll always be winning something in France, and as the manager of THE iconic French team it doesn’t get much better if you work there. If he comes to Arsenal we are, what, 3rd most iconic club in current thinking (I’m ignoring Citeh and Chelsea as they are simply rich, not iconic). Managers thrive on winning stuff and while they may be convinced that they are good enough to guide a team to win the CL they will always try to get a job with the very best team they can find as… Read more »
You mention we have more ambitious rivals, right now there’s clubs like Leicester, the champions, strengthening their first XI. Xhaka aside, what have we done to plug the huge deficiencies in our squad/XI?
What ambition have we shown?
I think Wenger should get involved in formula one. you could have relatively average cars pit against Wenger’s. A world-class machine but with flat tyres and dodgey clutch and gear box and a belt that is ready to snap at any time.
Only then you he bring Arsenal to formula one.
Will be the first car in Formula One to have a handbrake
Wenger is a legend, whatever has happened over the past 10 years or so , he loves the club and to bemoan him is frankly offensive, I can’t think of one manager who has such a deep love and affection for a club like Wenger does. He genuinely cares and he’s a bloody great manager, and I guarantee that fans of any other club in the league would die to have a manager as passionate about their club as he is.
Suggesting that anyone is beyond criticism of any sort is bad idea. You can respect the man and still level legitmate criticism.
^Nailed it, I don’t find much balance on these boards.
He’s great, but I hope this is his last season, maybe he can be a director of football, but even then they are involved in transfers, which evidently is not his forte, in being aggressive in the market.
Apart from Manchester United who’ll accept any old c**t.
Legitimate criticism based on an understanding of the situation, yes. I don’t think many of the people here that are unhappy with our transfers actually understand the situation or how transfers work. They think all you need to “get your man” is to offer more money, or if that fails, even more money. Criticising Wenger for failing to sign any top players because he’s trying to avoid spending money is absolutely daft. Saying he’s always failed to buy top players because he doesn’t want to spend money is f*ckwittery of the highest level. Ozil alone makes such statements look like… Read more »
WENGER won’t retire he’ll just clone himself. my current Nightmare is that before this season ends we’ll give him a contract extension and i’ll stop being an Arsenal fan
Well fuck off then. Forget that we apparently disagree on Wenger, but we really don’t need ‘fans’ who decide they don’t support a team anymore because a manager, who clearly loves his club and has done some great things during his tenure, is given an extension. I personally can’t stand fair weather supporters like you who think that anyone cares if you “stop being an Arsenal fan”. If your loyalty is so vague and vacuous, do us all a favour and fuck off now.
Charley by name !
Is that all it will take for you to stop supporting the club you supposedly love?
Piss off already
No-one will miss you if you stop being an Arsenal fan, because you’re not one now. Pick a manager you like and follow him from club to club every three years. Idiot.
Lol. I guess he’ll never finish that jigsaw even if it’s just a piece left. He might just have a coronary
But when he does finish the giant jigsaw, maybe he can use it to make the pieces for a giant jigsaw puzzle? He could then decide to leave out a few pieces and try to put the puzzle together anyway.
Or he could just use the saw to cut really large pieces of wood.
Fergusson went out on a high, happy, positive. No regrets.
I wider if Wenger is scared of leaving on a low note and of how he may be perceived once gone, rather than actually leaving the game itself.
Ferguson fucked up royally for the last two years of his reign. He bought quick fixes and left their club in a huge mess for three years, and the only thing that might solve it temporarily is by employing the scummiest manager in football today. Ferguson’s legacy keeps on kicking United fans in the teeth, year after year, because Ferguson’s legacy was all intended to make Ferguson look great when he retired. No regrets for him maybe, but the United fans have been regretting that one year of PL glory ever since he retired. Wenger won’t do / isn’t doing… Read more »
Then why, why, why….don’t you go all out to win the league?!?! Buy the players!
RosickyLegend7. U love the club and so do others who want improvement, if Wenger remains the old Wenger, he would be much loved and less hassled on social media as you said. If the whole of world football changes to adapt, those left behind will end up like the dinosaurs who were unable to change quickly. Arsenal should be ahead of the peers not behind in adaptation. You make it sound like spending money is evil. It may be the root of all evil especially when you don’t spend enough. If they were the real financial savvy club they were,… Read more »
The whole world thinks that playing Pokemon is more important than watching for traffic when they cross the road. I wouldn’t judge Wenger harshly for being careful with Arsenal’s heritage when it could only take a single failed TV Company to wipe out at least half of the teams in the Premier League. The world is fucked and people play Pokemon instead of lifting their heads and looking around at it. In a world where every football fan can play football games on their computer (or other platform) that makes them feel like they really are managing a team and… Read more »
I think one of the scariest things about him leaving is that we may just find out that his hands were tied from up above regarding spending and that he was just too diplomatic or a company man to say so.
Then we may find ourselves with a lesser manager, despite whatever name value they have, who aren’t up to the task of doing what Wenger has done. That is, finding a way into the Champions League every year for 20 years, often with a roster that wasn’t deserving of it on paper.
Again, can anyone really believe the manager’s love for the club is the reason why we don’t have a serious striker and also why we are starved of serious center halves for years? I love to see how a manager that loves the club more or less would do because all I’m hearing is that once Arsene retires, the club will be destroyed and erased from the face of the earth because noone else can do it better!
What a legend. I doubt there will ever be another like him. Loyal and stubborn in equal measure. Consistently makes his critics look stupid and is vastly more intelligent than the buffoons who belittle and abuse him. There aren’t many people left to admire in football, but he is definitely right at the top.
Fergie is not retired per se, he just found other less stressful ways to spend his time. He recently was in my neck of the woods headlining a leadership seminar where he talked about leadership qualities and winning mentality etc.
Unfortunately Wenger was not in attendance 😛
hahahahaha
Some people are very salty at this post.
Although winning is of course important, the tone of so many comments aimed at AW is appalling. I profoundly hope he gets some silverware this season, and I am not blind to some of the failures of the squad/recruitment especially re recent defensive injuries, and yes it’s frustrating, but the level of 20:20 hindsight vitriol and general abuse a stone cold legend gets is amazing. Certain Arsenal fans have a quite unpleasant sense of entitlement. Support the team and respect the man (doesn’t mean you agree with everything he does) he has clearly poured everything of himself into the club.… Read more »
Old red nose achieved everything he could hope for and more. I fear when Arsene retires he’ll be filled with regret. Never won in Europe, never retained a league title and really has won about half the number of trophies the quality of some of the teams we’ve had should’ve won. Those league titles of 99, 03, 08 and even last year were in our grasp. In 2004 we legitimately could’ve won the quad and I feel that was our year in Europe. Not turning up in the 2000 UEFA cup final, heartbreak in Pari in 06, getting robbed at… Read more »
So you didn’tnotice that it was Fergie’s mismanagement of United that dropped them into a shithole so deep that they’d consider it worthwhile to employ the nastiest piece of work in football management just so that they might get one decent year before he poisons the atmosphere at the club.
Are you insane? I would take 26 years of unprecedented success followed by a few of struggles. And it’s not exactly like they’re not actively trying to get back to the top. I would even take what happened to Chelsea last year if it meant we’d won the league the previous year. Would much much rather have a season of winning the league followed by a poor season than coming 2nd-4th every year. You also know that we hate Mourinho not just for people a horrible human being (which he is) but also because he’s incredibly successful? You’ve bought into… Read more »
Oh ffs, you need to go Arsene. Your poor decision making in the last few years is tainting your legacy. We will all decline in our careers eventually, and your powers are well on their way down I’m afraid.
He won’t be hard to replace because he hasn’t won anything in Europe for 20 years and hasn’t competed for the title in 13. It will be a blessed relief when he does go and the sooner the better as far as I’m concerned. The person that won all those trophies has left the room – we should stop living in the past, like he does.
I’m sure a change of scenery would help. Surely there has to be other clubs out there that would love to be frugal in the market and be in the top four every season.
Just guessing though.
Achieving a B is an excellent achievement!!!!!!
Unless your capable of an A* …….
Then it’s under achieving.
Yeah that A* is something ain’t it?
After all, super quality players are the only ones that can improve on Giroud and Walcott but those guys cost a lot of money. Arsenal would need like 225mil in cash reserves to buy them.
Sacrebleu.
Current griping aside, I fervently hope Wenger has the chance to end his career at Arsenal with a PL win. It would be a fitting end to truly path-breaking career.
Too many here suffer from codependency towards AW. Don´t get me wrong I respect the man, however, for the last 4-5 years the club as not been ready for the start of the season. Why might that be?
And, unfortunately this addiction is going to kill the Arsenal!
Does anyone believe this is his last season? I know I don’t.
SHARK behind you Arsene!!!!
Was anyone here around when we were being dished up the s**t we used to have when GG was manager. Be careful what you wish for, wenger has given us some great, great times. We could have had the last 20 years those tossers down the road have had. Remember that, long live wenger.
Wenger is all I’ve ever really known as an Arsenal fan. I’m shitting myself over the day he eventually leaves.
Trust me. Coming second in the PL is way above the average expectation that we had before Wenger arrived. If it wasn’t for him most of the people complaining on here wouldn’t ever have chosen to support Arsenal. They saw him be successful and assumed it would always be like that, and when it wasn’t they got angry with him for failing them, and as they keep telling us, they are sure it’s all deliberate.
We always feel the team is unprepared for the upcoming season because Wenger likes to develop solutions that he knows from within. Others like to splash the cash to discover new players and that’s not proven to be better over time. Buying one or two established stars, into a steady squad, a year is probably right. We always want more but don’t appreciate what it does to the stability of the team. The best PL teams in recent years have been established over time; Invincibles, Utd, Chelsea, City, they all evolved over a number of years, only Leicester appeared from… Read more »
Leicester got lucky because they got Ranieri. That PL win has much more to do with him than it has to do with Vardy or Mahrez (Mahrez is a case in point. bang average until Ranieri arrived). He managed to make them work like they never had before. It wasn’t done by spending money, it was done by convincing the players that they could do it if they played like a real team and believed that they could do it. If you were going to criticise Wenger for everything it’s that he has all that talent in the squad but… Read more »
In less than 5 years he will leave and someone else will take over whether you all like it or not…! Whether he is addicted or not… ! He “cannot” be there longer than that.
It’s time to respect what he’s achieved and forget the slagging off at every opportunity – it will be a sad day when he goes and we’re hardly gonna sign pep up next are we?! Maybe he cares about the club and its runnings a little too much and shouldn’t be so frugal with the money but he’s a proper Arsenal man through and through, you can’t just replace that
Sad for you, I’ll be celebrating. “He cares about the club” – what’s that got to do with anything? The only thing that matters is whether he is performing at an optimal level, which is obviously not the case. He can be celebrated, by those who want to, when he’s left. Meanwhile, it would be nice to have a manager that is tactically competent, ambitious and relatively transparent.
I hope after this season he manages France and wins the World Cup.
Wenger will leave after winning the champions league.
So never then?
Wengers fault totally why we havnt won title for years.
Never signs the extra pieces of jigsaw we need.
Also for some one who’s been in champions league for 20 yrs running shows he will never win it.
Not tatically good enough.
I would like Wenger to stay forever. He is the best manager in our history. He is also an extremely decent lovely man who has shown the world how to you can be at the very top of your profession while still being principled. And in football terms he is the reason you got to watch Henry, Viera, Pires, Fabregas, Ozil, Sanchez etc etc etc They wouldn’t be here without him, and that class of player won’t be with us when he goes. Then many of you will have your wish of a lesser manager spending more money and I… Read more »
Can’t believe people still defend this man what has he done so far that inspires confidence? not willing to pay the big bucks (yes they are overpriced but that is the football world now). People scoff at 100m for Pogba who the hell cares , if you can afford it then go for it the priority is winning trophies not justifying your economics degree but the club has brainwashed the fans into accepting ‘value’ despite being the 5th richest club in the world and having a massive cash balance. 1.We have had a variety of different players but all of… Read more »
Time to give up the addiction as its messing with ya head and that of the fans!!! Drugs are bad, okay!!!
People take shots at Theo and Ramsey all day and its OK, but when it comes to criticising AW people go up in arms. Double standard?
Premier League title against all odds this year and contract renewal for couple more seasons.
Wenger is marmite to fans hate him or love him more love him than hate him can’t think of any managers who would have achieved as much with so little finances and restraints and still be in love with The Arsenal now we have the money it’s harder to buy players many clubs have vast amounts of money they will always outbid and pay more wages than is ethical or sustainable or morale but never believe now he will not spend if he can he has worked hard to get the club financial secure and why should he not reap… Read more »