WHY I REGRET STAYING FOR SO LONG AT ARSENAL
WHAT IF YOU COULD REMOVE ONE MOMENT FROM YOUR LIFE?
All the defeats. There haven’t been many. Each is a scar for life. Each will forever be a great disappointment.
WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST MISTAKE?
Perhaps staying at the same club for 22 years. I’m someone who likes to move around a lot. But I also like a challenge. I’ve been a prisoner of my own challenge at times.
WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST FEAR?
To lose the ability to be physically independent. I enjoy my mobility. I like exercising.
WHAT IF YOU HAD TO ASK SOMEONE FOR FORGIVENESS?
All the people who I’ve made suffer. In my line of work, we are constantly making decisions that punish people, while making others happy. When you work with a 25-man squad, it’s basically making 14 people unemployed every Saturday or Tuesday. Also, the players for whom I never managed to find the key to helping them reach their potential.
WHAT IF YOU COULD SPEND ONE EVENING WITH SOMEONE?
I’d like to spend an evening with Moses. What did he think of the Ten Commandments? Effectively our first constitution. I find it well constructed. What did he think?
WHAT BOOKS DO YOU LIKE?
Sociology, philosophy...
WHAT IS YOUR DARKEST SIN?
My taste for patisseries. I’m from Strasbourg. I eat them every day.
WHAT IF YOU WEREN’T IN FOOTBALL?
I’d be somewhere in a competitive field. I love competing. There are two types of competitiveness. Those who hate to lose and those who love to win. We’re all, in some way, a mix of the two and I think I hate losing more.
HOW DID IT BEGIN?
It started in a little restaurant. The local football team used the restaurant as headquarters in a small town outside Strasbourg.
I heard only football and religion. In the morning, religion and football was the distraction. I took part in all the conversations with the team’s organisers from a very young age. Five or six. I understood quickly that the team wasn’t great and I started going to the games with my emissary.
I believed only God could help them at the time. I would read and recite prayers during the game while watching them play. I can tell you it’s better to have a good centre-forward than a hymn sheet.
WAS IT A TEAM YOUR DAD COACHED?
He created a team because he saw I was fascinated with the game. I was about 13 when I started playing. The team didn’t have a coach. It’s remarkable that until the age of 19, I didn’t have a coach and I’ve had such a long career in football despite this.
YOU PLAYED AT STRASBOURG AND WERE A COACH AT 33...
I wasn’t convinced I had the qualities to be a coach given I didn’t have an illustrious playing career. I wasn’t convinced I had the natural authority either. I found myself propelled into this job by people around me and what they saw in me. Something I didn’t see. One weird paradox is that I’ve never struggled for authority, even with the older player, even without screaming.
IN 2003-04, WHAT WAS THE SECRET?
When we won the title in 2002, I told the Press my dream was to win the title unbeaten. I was lambasted as pretentious and arrogant. When we lost the title to Manchester United (in 2002-03), I asked the players why and they said: ‘It’s your fault. You put too much pressure on us’. And it’s interesting because I told them the only reason I said it was because I truly believed it.
And then they did it. Which proves two things. One, sometimes we don’t put the level of ambition high enough. We don’t dare. We’re scared. But you must set the bar as high as possible. Two, sometimes you must plant the seed and wait for it to grow.
Man is easily satisfied with what he has. The team needs to constantly be fed new targets. We all tend to wallow in comfort. We don’t want the pain.
Without the pain, you don’t reach a higher level. Without making the conscious decision to ask yourself: ‘What am I aspiring to?’ You stay where you are. It has nothing to do with elite sporting ability. The key factor isn’t the intensity of the motivation. It’s the endurance of the motivation. You could call it tenacity.
I realise I’ve hurt a lot of people around me. I’ve neglected my family. I’ve neglected many close ones. Deep down, the obsessed man is selfish in his pursuit of what he loves. He ignores a lot of other things.
Often, I’m asked if Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira will be good managers and I always answer: ‘Yes’. They have all the qualities. They’re intelligent, have an excellent skill set but do they want to sacrifice what needs to be sacrificed? It’s an obsession that bounces around your head day and night. You wake at 3am thinking about team selection, tactics, formation…
WHICH PLAYER LEFT THE BIGGEST IMPRESSION ON YOU?
The most talented of those I’ve coached. Thierry Henry, probably.
WHICH MATCH MADE YOU HAPPIEST?
Probably beating Barcelona when they were at their highest peak.
WHICH SIGNING ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?
The ones that cost little but turned out to be top class. Toure, Henry, Campbell, Anelka.
YOUR WORST RECRUIT?
There’s quite a lot!
WHAT IS THE PERFECT PLAYER?
There’s no perfect player. They all have flaws. Messi is the most perfect because he can make others play and he can score, but he has weaknesses. He’s not very good in the air. He’s not great defensively. But you make a living out of your strengths. The coach must put players around this person to hide his weaknesses.
WHAT NEXT?
I’m asking myself the same question. Do I keep doing what I’ve been doing, what I know? Or do I share all the knowledge I’ve accumulated in a slightly different way? That’s the question I need to answer in the next few months. For the full version of this interview go to: www.dailymail.co.uk/sport