Whether he stays at Arsenal or not, Arsene Wenger is not viewing Saturday’s FA Cup final as his last game as a manager.
Speculation about his future has been ongoing for months, but even if the club decide not to renew his contract, it’s clear the Frenchman is not ready to call time on his managerial career.
As you’d expect, he refused to speak in any great detail about anything other than the upcoming clash with Chelsea, but was asked if this could be his final game in charge of the Gunners.
“I don’t know,” he said. “It will not be my last match anyway, because I will stay, no matter what happens, in football.
“What I want is to win the next game. I love to win and I want to do well for my club. I want to win the cup for my club.
“It’s not about me. It’s about us winning the trophy and giving absolutely everything to achieve it.”
Wenger was also reminded that a win on Saturday would make him the most successful FA Cup manager of all time, with seven wins. He currently shares the record with Aston Villa’s George Ramsay, but again that was not at the forefront of his mind.
“Look, I want to do it just to win the cup,” he continued. “I think the team has done well to redress the situation on the sporting side. That would be a good crowning of what we have done in the last two months.
“The team has given so much that I think the really want to win something. After that, if I have some benefit as well, that’s ok.
“But that’s not my main worry.”
He has been good to football and he will be good to football.
If wenger leaves I hope he goes to Barca or something and wins the champions league
France job 2018 post Wcup
That won’t happen as Barcelona can’t defend
He can’t sustain a serious title challenge with us for years, is super slow to adapt tactics or make a working gameplan but yes, Barca who are seriously ambitious and don’t accept excuses and illusions of trophies and success (“top4 trophy”, “against Bayern if you look at 45 mins in each game, we would go through” etc.) would want him. Sorry to break the dream for you but no serious club would want a manager who did not won a major trophy in 13 yrs, esp when Leicester managed to do so last year and we had a best chance… Read more »
Yep
I take it you’re Wenger In?
Just an interesting thought for whoever is our manager next season, now that united qualified for champions league that means that all other 5 top teams in the premiere league will be playing their strong squads in the UCL. If we use the Europa League as a chance to rest our key players and really go for the premiere league then we will have that advantage Leicester and Chelsea had when they won the league. Realistically speaking we weren’t going to win the champions league if we qualified, the premiere league is the target we want and if we can… Read more »
Reaching the latter stages of Europa gets some valuable (for our board) TV money. Don’t think we won’t not take it seriously, and league results/form etc are highly uncertain.
We have enough money, we have enough FA Cups (even if we don’t win it this weekend). What we need is the premiere league, which would put us in a stronger position to build a squad strong enough to win the champions league or at least challenge.
You’re right on point mate.
It could come down to a battle between the squads that rorate most efficiently.
Win or lose, the FA Cup final should 100% be Arsene Wenger’s last game in charge of Arsenal.
That’s the speereet!
Great news! I would hate to see him retire 🙂
I think the arsecast mentioned this but it probably isn’t the best time to part with Wenger anyway. It would leave silent Stan in charge of organizing the team in a sport he doesn’t know a thing about. Not like he’s that great an owner to begin with. Let’s kick on, win the Europa league and hopefully springboard ourselves into a new future when the time is right. Which is hopefully om the horizon
Don’t worry, we have Ivan Gazidis…
Well unless we find the right manager …we should retain the option to keep Wenger for one transitional season bc this summer can get complicated and his acumen in the market is impeccable.
The last thing you want is to have a new gaffer come in and adjust to a new league with a significant rebuilding job.
It will at very least give enough time to put things in place for a smoother transition process… Like say a director of football if need be.
Impeccable. Ffs, give over.
Yes, Wenger will gladly help with transition and give up his power… No way. While he is here, nothing will change. Things can change really fast with a new manager, you put in someone experienced enough and ready to accept that he will need support from functions like DoF etc., build this strong team around him and within a few months they could be able to run things very smoothly. It is not a rocket science and if you put good people in right positions, they will know what to do. Even if the first season would be transitional and… Read more »
You mean like Conte just did……
Ahahahaaa.. yes, we will win Europa league, playing Thu/Sat and with us all knowing how good Wenger is in using the squad to its full depth… Stan, while I am in no way his fan, he would not need to organize a team if Wenger leaves, he is not a coach or a manager. He could hire a good manager from the market, put a modern structure around him and voila, in a few months we coule be up and running. Chelsea proved it with many changes of managers and most recently with Conte. It would not be that complicated… Read more »
Well said. Let’s start that transition next week. Hopefully on back of FA Cup win.
If may not be his last game in management, but I hope he wins a final medal and finishes his Arsenal career on Saturday.
Well said and spot on. Respect for him, thank you for all you did but no more.
Well of course…you won’t want him to miss the Emirates cup inn the summer would you?
It’ll be a great send off for someone who has been no ordinary manager for us.
Today Usmanov was in the news for launching a tirade at an anti corruption Putin critic. Is this the guy that Arsenal fans want owning this club? Kroenke is doing the right thing by not selling to this lunatic.
Agreed, but they’re not the only two options. Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote is an arsenal fan and has spoken out about his intentions of buying Arsenal, also stating he wanted to buy the club and turn it around rather than keep things going the way they are.
True and I was only referring to Usmanov. I’m not against him selling his shares. Arsenal is important to me, but morals and ethics are more important to me.
You’re right to focus on Usmanov’s questionable business practices. At the same time Kroenke being a billionaire from a Western country looks more respectable, but he has his skeletons too.
Seen some ugly press reports recently of him evicting homeowners (who are too poor to sue him) from the million-acre ranch he recently purchased. Our billionaire shareholders both take advantage of systems – one land-baron capitalist, the other a mineral baron oligarch. Plenty of corruption to go around, legal or otherwise.
Legal corruption?
I know it sounds odd, but corruption isn’t just a legal term. It’s descriptive, like “Jose Mourinho corrupts the game of football by being a massive c*nt”.
I think you’ll find that the majority of mega rich people have a history full of shitting on the poor. True facts. Vote labour x
Yes, after all there still is the emirates cup
weirdly, part of me wants to see him move on and do very well at another big European club.
I don’t buy the argument that he’s lost his touch – I think he needs a change as much as Arsenal does. It’s just not working for either of us anymore…
I think it makes sense for him to move on, good example from someone (maybe Blogs?) was in his regards to the manager speaking. I just totally phase him out, gotta think the players do the same.
in other news, check out cazorla’s son’s skills https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF-rWrCM6dA
What an absolute joy to watch. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree no?
“I didn’t get in to win the championship ” just reminding you of Kroenke.
Win or lose, Arsene should step aside at the end of his contract.