I’ll manage next season: Wenger
INTHELINEOFFIRE Under pressure after the Munich debacle, manager says he will decide his future in couple of months
LONDON:Arsene Wenger said on Friday that he will definitely still be a manager next season, whether at Arsenal or “somewhere else”.
Wenger said he would make a decision in March or April on whether to extend his 20-year spell at Arsenal. He left open the possibility that he would walk away from the north London club and into another job.
The second longest-serving manager in the history of the Premier League, Wenger is out of contract at the end of the season.
He has not won the league title since 2004, and calls for him to end his association with Arsenal have grown louder since the team’s 5-1 Champions League thrashing at Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
That first-leg defeat is almost certain to condemn Arsenal to their seventh successive Champions League exit at the competition’s first knockout stage.
“I will decide (my) future in March or April, but I don’t (exactly) know when,” Wenger told a news conference on Friday, before his team’s fifthround FA Cup clash away to non-league Sutton United on Monday.
“I speak to the board, but I don’t want to speak about how they view my future. What’s important is the club, not my future. No matter what happens, I will manage next season, whether it is here or somewhere else. That is for sure.”
Arsenal have consistently qualified for Europe’s elite club competition, but their failure to progress has become a millstone around Wenger’s neck.
Their inability to turn promising domestic season starts into sustained title challenges has also left him vulnerable to criticism, and former players are now joining in a chorus of disapproval.
Former Arsenal captain Martin Keown described Wednesday’s defeat as Wenger’s “lowest point”, while ex-defender Lee Dixon added: “This team is getting no response from him. I’ve never seen him like that.”
With Arsenal fourth in the Premier League table and trailing
We have to regroup and refocus on the next game, and to take care of the consequences of a disappointing result I am used to the criticism. I think in life it’s important to do what you think is right and all the rest is judgement. I am in a public job and I have to accept that, but I have to behave with my values. We let everyone judge and criticise, we have to deal with that. What is important is that the club makes the right decision for the future. I care about this club and its future.
leaders Chelsea by 10 points with 13 games to play, the FA Cup appears once again to be the North London club’s last hope for silverware this season.
It was the subject of Wenger’s future, however, that dominated the manager’s news conference. “We have to focus on the real problems and they are the way we play football, not my future ... Even if I go, Arsenal will not win every single game in the future,” he said. Wenger received some welcome support on Thursday from British athletics legend and Arsenal fan Mo Farah.
Farah told Thursday’s ITV News he believed Wenger deserved to be given a new contract. “I’d like to see him at the top and see what he can do, get in a few key players,” said Farah.