I’M IN CHARGE
Wenger says he won’t work under a director of football and insists...
ARSENE WENGER has ridiculed the role of the director of football and ruled out any chance of such an appointment being made at Arsenal as long as he is the manager.
‘I’ve never understood what it means,’ said Wenger, who also scoffed at the march of football’s data analysts, imagining the day they punch data into a computer and wait for the best team to be printed out.
His comments will not be lost on Arsenal’s chief executive Ivan Gazidis, who has been exploring ways to restructure the club’s recruitment and coaching strategy after 13 years without winning the title.
A director of football has been one proposed solution, with Marc Overmars of Ajax and Michael Zorc of Borussia Dortmund among those tipped as candidates for the role. But Wenger rejected the idea.
‘Director of football?’ said the Frenchman. ‘I don’t know what it means. Is it someone who stands on the road and directs play right and left?
‘As long as I am the manager of Arsenal football club I will decide what happens on a technical front.
‘When it does not work here I am blamed. I am blamed for decisions I have not made? It is tough enough to be blamed for decisions you have made.
‘It is difficult to imagine somebody signs a player that the manager does not know. It never happened to me.’
Arsenal are presently mired in uncertainty and the biggest issue surrounds Wenger’s own future, with the 67-year-old’s contract set to expire at the end of the season.
The FA Cup final against Chelsea — the last game of the campaign — is less than three weeks away, and despite a feeling he is inclined to stay, there is still no confirmation that the manager will extend his contract.
Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and Alex Oxlade- Chamberlain are among several first-team stars with only 12 months left on their contracts but Wenger has ruled out any new deals being signed by players before the season ends.
Behind the scenes, Arsenal have been without an academy director since Andries Jonker left for Wolfsburg in February and Gazidis — conscious of the demand for change from a vocal section of fans — has been examining his backroom options.
Fitness coach Tony Colbert, goalkeeping coach Gerry Peyton and chief scout Steve Rowley are among those thought to have their positions under scrutiny.
‘Progression or regression?’ said Wenger. ‘Changes can go both ways. Maybe the time will come where the football manager will not be a football specialist any more.
‘He will have enough computers around him to analyse the game and straight away he pushes on the button and out comes the team for the next game.
‘And the supporters will have a word to say to make a change at half-time on the internet. It might come. But I will not be there.’
Wenger was the forward-thinking radical who transformed Arsenal, built the modern club and chased away many of English football’s bad habits when he arrived in London in 1996.
His vision has not extended wholeheartedly into the generation of data analysis despite Arsenal’s £2million acquisition of a US-based data company called StatDNA in 2012.
It was a move designed to inform transfer strategy with the brainpower of Harvard experts but he has never warmed to the idea of relinquishing any of his power and his latest remarks hint at friction between him and Gazidis.
‘It is a question of teamwork inside the club,’ said Wenger. ‘Some coaches are only interested in managing the team and are happy with it. I am not like that and I cannot change myself now. I can change myself by trying to get better. But the personality?
‘I have 40 years of experience at the top level and, personally, think I have a good knowledge of the game. I am who I am. That is it.’ Wenger was in combative mood ahead of tonight’s trip to Southampton. He defended Arsenal’s style of football and warned of a bleak future for the game if every team follows the trends to resist possession and play on the counter-attack, a style he believes has been embraced by champions-elect Chelsea and their predecessors Leicester.
‘Sport has to encourage initiative,’ said Wenger. ‘If it rewards too much teams who don’t take initiative we have to rethink the whole process because people will not come forever to watch teams who do not want to take the initiative.’
Wenger’s side have not won at St Mary’s in the Premier League since December 2003 in the Invincibles season, but will go fifth above Manchester United if they beat Saints.
Four games remain for Arsenal and 12 more points will take their total to 75 and pressurise top- four rivals Liverpool and Manchester City as Wenger attempts to qualify for the Champions League for a 20th successive season.
‘I always feel that as long as we have a chance we have to fight like mad to do it,’ said Wenger.
‘We would be stupid not to get in the Champions League places because we don’t believe it.’
“What do they do? Direct players left and right like directing traffic?”