WENGER: I’LL DO IT MY WAY!
Arsene demands control to stay as Gunners boss
ARSENE WENGER is set to stand his ground tomorrow and call for no major shake-up in the way he manages Arsenal.
Starsport can reveal the Frenchman remains totally against the introduction of a sporting director and other big changes in the management ® structure of the club. Players and staff have left on their summer break none the wiser about Wenger’s future.
He did not drop any hints about whether he’d still be at the club before or after his seventh FA Cup win.
The Gunners stars celebrated their 2-1 victory over Chelsea at a London hotel on Saturday night before going their separate ways.
Tomorrow is D-Day for Wenger when majority shareholder Stan Kroenke and the board meet to decide his future, with his contract soon running out.
But Wenger won’t be bullied by the board and is understood to be only willing to sign a new
two-year deal if he things continue to be run his way. Chief executive Ivan Gazidis spoke last month about the need for Wenger to be willing to adjust his role and become a “catalyst for change” at the club.
Wenger is thought to be ready to stand his ground, knowing Paris St-Germain still want him.
Wenger, though, did confess that his failure to sort out if he was staying or going had handicapped the club this season and helped spark bitter fan protests.
“I worked until the last day of my contract. That is today (Saturday’s FA Cup Final), basically,” he said.
“I think I have shown that I have exactly the same commitment. So, for me, the contract does not have a special meaning. But, because of the debate, I should have sorted that out earlier.”
Wenger was offered the two-year deal early in the season. But after a slump at the end of January – which saw four league defeats in five games and an embarrassing 10-2 aggregate loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League – the board inserted additional clauses into the contract.
They included Wenger having to work with a sporting director.
But the Frenchman said: “I don’t know what that means.”
Lois Langton, chair of Arsenal Independent Supporters’ Association, hit back at Wenger’s attack on disgruntled fans, saying: “He wants supporters to show him respect but that works both ways. Supporters pay thousands of pounds following the club around the world, so to be left in the dark as to the future management of the club is a bitter pill to swallow.”