Arsene Wenger says that his departure from Arsenal was, in some ways, a relief, as his health was beginning to suffer under the relentless pressure of the job.
It’s almost a year since he announced his intention to the leave the club at the end of last season, but even three FA Cup wins in four years couldn’t alleviate the stress he felt due to the demands of the job.
The former boss was speaking at an event in France, and compared leaving Arsenal to a break-up, but acknowledged the benefits for both him and supporters.
“In life there are some splits that you choose and some that are imposed on you,” he said.
“In this case it was a bit of a mix of the two. Because, at a certain point, the fans need a change. In my last year it was becoming difficult.
“So it was both a break-up but also a relief for me, because carrying that responsibility for so long, with all the obligations that come with it, it wears you out.
“It’s extraordinarily difficult. And last year I felt I was beginning to pay the price health-wise.”
If you’ve seen any recent pictures of Arsene, he looks like a weight has been lifted from his shoulders, and it’s probably telling that a man who seemed absolutely wedded to the mountain of work day in, day out that goes with being a manager, has yet to take on a new role despite plenty of offers.
He also had some very interesting things to say about Thierry Henry, his role as the star player in the team, and what it means when he moved to Barcelona.
Check those out in the Twitter thread below.
Arsene Wenger gave a 2 hour presentation and Q and A session last night at the Olympia. @lequipe have reported some interesting quotes that he gave on leaving Arsenal and on Thierry Henry:
— Jeremy Smith (@jeremysmith98) April 2, 2019
Tbf, he wasn’t the only one.
In all seriousness, he looks and sounds well these days. And still wearing Arsenal tracksuit bottoms on holiday, the absolute legend
Love this guy and always will do
Although it was a much needed break, it felt like a part of the soul was lost when he left. When we talk about identity of a club, Arsene was a major part and sometimes, perhaps bigger than the club itself.
Sad the way he left but i guess life is like Game of Thrones. Never turns out the way it should…
You had me right up until the GOT reference..
resting up before he starts his new role of Technical Director…
Watching Wenger’s final years had ill-effects on health on many fans I would dare to guess.
3 FA Cups was a little help
You’ll see a decline in the club’s on-field performance linked to an increasing dumbing down of expectations from Wenger. Once upon a time, we won the Premiership and domestic cups and qualified for the CL. Then, when we simply weren’t good enough to win the Premiership, qualifying for the CL became (almost magically), “like winning a trophy” according to Wenger. What nonsense. Despite the later FA Cup wins, against some pretty variable opposition mind you, we were still in a steep decline compared to other “top” teams. Can any of us forget (although I’ve tried) the hammerings in the Premiership… Read more »
We beat every other top team in the country winning those cups: Spurs, Everton and Liverpool in 2014, United in 2015 and Chelsea and City in 2017. Remember we were 4th favorites come the semi final of our last victory. A bit of respect for a man who deserves it
Respect. He was threatening to turn things around again with better spend freed up from the (mostly) paid off stadium.
BUT he dropped the ball the season when we bought just Cech and Leicester went off to win it. Had he spent a little more then and built on the 2 FA cups, it could have been the title again and a better ending for the legend.
Well, we’ll never know. But the position we’re in now isn’t down to Emery, is it?
Well said
And now you’re desperate for that 4th place trophy. Ironic really.
We were on the clear up until the December of 2016 when the contract problems started. English media started doing everything to unsettle the squad and Wenger. With Ozil we at least knew that his head was with us. On the other side Alexis started to perform badly, his body language changed and he didn’t put the effort anymore. If I remember correctly his running stats massively droped after the December of 16th. Imo his personality also changed. Wenger made a big mistake with not selling him at the start of the last season.
No, not quite: the real problem at the end of 2016 was the injury to Santi Cazorla – we never really recovered from that (and the injuries to Özil and Sanchez at the time didn´t help either). Just look at yesterday´s match and imagine Santi in our side for the last two years … things would have gone differently ..
Sweet Jesus – give it a rest. It’s a long while back now.
People are still doing American Civil war re-enactments and some Brits can’t resist making WWII references when talking about Germans.
No doubt the Gooner Civil War around Wenger will keep dividing opinion for many decades to come
The ‘problem’ with Henry was kind of replicated with Sanchez, only he lost the ball a lot more. I don’t have the exact stats, but I fail to remember a time where there was massive amounts of frustration with Henry’s possession.
Glad to see AW feels in better health and still offering advice to his players.
Henry was superb with the ball. Could not take it off of him. The other player who was excellent was Santi whom Arsene found and signed off Malaga for comparatively nothing. A real steal too. Wenger has made superb signings even in later years. Koscielny was a bargain. Arguably Diaby could have replicated Viera plus more but for injuries. Ozil at 42.3m (panic buy never mind panic loan these days) was also a bit of a coup for us. Wenger if anything flattered to deceive bc he bought superbly well in market. Mslintat does not even compare. Wenger was his… Read more »
When is this legend getting his statue outside the emirates?
And when will we name a stand after AW?
The truth is that for his own health, and as importantly, the health of the club he should have left some years earlier. Most Gooners will acknowledge the relative decline of the club to where we ended up when he finally left – it certainly wasn’t just in the last year. I’m glad he’s well of course, but he was doing more harm than good for some time before the end and Emery is having to cope with the fallout (and coping very well so far).
Nah. He won two FA cups back to back but the problem was the season Leicester won the League. We should have won that but he was his own worse enemy and we only brought in Cech that season. Then it started to unravel truly. It wasn’t helped by some disrespectful fans who contributed to the poor atmosphere and compounded issues. Wenger deserved more respect and grace but some segment of fans are complete plonkers and lacked class. Hope he knows most of us have the utmost respect for him and the incredible journey he has taken us. We were… Read more »
Yep, I’m afraid. We must be careful of revisionist history. It’s not correct to say “some fans were disrespectful”. The majority of fans at The Emirates (I was one), could see the poor quality of the teams he was putting out, and in the end enough was enough. They weren’t “complete plonkers and lacked class”, rather more and more of us recognised that the club meant more than the man. There’s a limit to how long respect for any manager keeps him in the job – it must never be “Wenger (or anyone else) right or wrong”, particularly when it’s… Read more »
you don’t speak for the majority of fans, and you should probably remove ‘reality’ from your user name.
Sadly iys 50 50 now.. im on the green side of tbe 50!
Couple of things, one – it’s pretty funny how, even today, some Wenger diehards are not prepared to listen to even the mildest criticism of Wenger and try to shut it down. Two, no Gooner should be afraid to say that Arsene should have stepped down years earlier. I mean, the man is telling us how unhealthy the job became for him. Besides, this club showed him a lot of faith and respect through the lean years. A ‘disrespectful’ or ‘impatient’ fanbase does not keep the same coach for two decades in the modern era. Even if he wasn’t ready,… Read more »
“financially transformed”. That’s nonesense. And don’t take my word for it, go check on the financial reports, you’ll find most our revenue is TV money. i.e. PL related, which has to do with general popularity of the competition. Our commercial revenues are much less than some of our rivals who win big titles consistently, or even Liverpool who haven’t won anything for a long time.
If the health of club was that bad . . . how come we vying for 4th place?
It’s funny how people forget that he sacrificed his pride and peak time by staying with the club at a critical financial period. Like modern day managers he never complained about budgets publicly. While Ferguson was buying the best talents from PL teams, he had to stayed back and watch his low budget team get hammered 7-1 and loss his dignity. He could easily have left for real, barca or bayern and get a few more trophies in his collection. And guess what whom would’ve you bring to get you success in that low budget? I think even Sam Allardyce… Read more »
Personally I think Pochettino will stay at Spurs for the same reason Arsene stayed at Arsenal: there is/was never any pressure to deliver immediate success in terms of trophies. I don’t deny that there’s the whole project thing as well, to take into account, but I think that’s part of the same argument – they got the club to the position of success (even if that means winning fuck all if you’re Pochettino) so they’re allowed leeway if things don’t go so well (“be careful what you wish for”). Do you think Spurs will sack Pochettino if they finish 5th/6th?… Read more »
Love this guy, he lived the club but I guess it was too much/too long in the end. Best of luck to him and hope he returns to the game soon
I’m happy for him. He was always a much, much better mind and person than to serve as a shield for the club’s soul-less owners. The vast expanse of daylight between them has only served to restore his sheen.
And – at least so far – show the Kroenkes up as rank amateurs, salvaged by another decent manager they don’t quite deserve.
The shameful thing is how some fans treated Arsene. Sure he lost his way toward the end but they did little favour contributing to the tepid if hostile atmosphere at the Emirates. In truth the season when Wenger only signed Cech and Leicester went on to win it was the catalyst. BUT the gaffer should have commanded better support even so. That said, Unai has been a great signing. He’s been clever not tried to reinvent the wheel (like Arteta would have). Instead he’s improved what he has on hand, tweaked and intervened from the sidelines and given direction where… Read more »
The signings we made while Mislintat was here, were all great signings, except for maybe Lichtsteiner.
Dude, would you just keep quiet? Some folks like me have been crying wolf even when Wenger was winning with the Invincibles before the reality unravelled. What if you learn that the Invincibles underperformed under Wenger? Do they have a Champions League title to show? Yet we were one of the best teams in Europe during that era. I appreciate Wenger and Arsenal maintained a good level during his first 10 years with David Dein in the saddle, but his weaknesses were glaring even back then. Remember Marlon Harewood of West Ham, and how the London derbies of that era… Read more »
Top man. Arsene should take it easy and enjoy his retirement. Although he could enjoy the occasional punditry of course.
He seems to very much into Qatar WC organizing.
Btw anyone has any idea how I can get a job in Qatar WC organizing, preferably in finance?
Do you know anything about sticking money in brown paper envelopes?
I hope he is enjoying his time off and see’s there is a lot more to life than football – a hell of a lot more.
If he is as sensible as I imagine he is he will stay well clear of football management.
There is, however a director of football post available if he is interested !
i wanted that from the start.
i wonder if he would be interested, having the time away may have changed his view on such a role.
AFAIK wenger never liked the roles because he saw their jobs as the managers job.
which to be fair it is. however we have a modern structure now with a head coach and a DoF and what not.
does he fancy coming back to do the backroom jobs of a manager, without the press and stress?
or would he prefer a big cheque managing elsewhere?
Full transcript looks like he would be interested!
I miss him. I don’t necessarily miss Arsene the manager but I truly miss Arsene the man. I wish he was on my telly box each week, talking about football… or French poetry, wine, politics, anything really.
Why is my discussion being interruoted by shit ads. Blogs u have sold out. Sad
I won.t say last time bcos i used to love this site..but really SAD
An OK attempt at trolling but you can do better Dave
The only reason it got to the stage it did was because Arsene wouldn’t delegate and surrounded himself with yes men. I will never disrespect him, but he was responsible for his own situation and nobody around him was strong enough to intervene until it was all too late. I’ll be honest, I was delighted when he left, and I think both he and the club handled the situation well, all things considered. The first ten years of Arsene were fantastic, the next few not so good and the last five were totally toxic. I think it will take a… Read more »
Is there a full transcript or video(english/subtitles)? When he says this stressful job affected his health, which is absolutly understandable, does that mean he will take a job bit far away from the great spotlight? He said in an interview that his only regret during his Arsenal years is that he never experienced something else so perfect fit imo would be nationalcoach of an non european country like i dunno…Iran, Costa Rica, Marocco, Tansania… where his wisdom might be needed or a job with a certain responisibility like Colombia, Ivory Coast, Japan or why not Argentina/Brazil. But sure he knows… Read more »
Les Professeur…
I actually remember being so mad during the 2006-07 season where it seemed like all we would do in our league matches was knock it up to Henry and cross our fingers
Arsene Legend!
This man’s autobiography would be a global bestseller. Do it, Arsene!