Revealed: Wenger’s secret meetings to take over at United
A day that must have begun with Arsene Wenger wondering with some trepidation about just how he would be received by the Arsenal fans ended with an intriguing reminder that he really was once the most sought-after manager in world football.
We already knew about the past interest from Barcelona, Real Madrid, Paris St-germain, Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Chelsea. Wenger could also have taken the England job as recently as last year. But Manchester United?
In his new autobiography, former United chairman Martin Edwards revealed for the first time that Wenger was the club’s unanimous choice to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson and how they twice secretly met the Arsenal manager to discuss the possibility of him taking over from his great rival in 2002.
The outcome followed the pattern of Wenger’s past dalliances. A brief period of flirtation was followed by reaffirming his marriage to Arsenal – but was he seriously tempted? “No, because I love the values of this club and, for me, a club is about values first,” he said.
“A lot has changed but when I came here this club was about values that I love in sport. That is why I am still in the competition. When I arrived here, we were 80 staff; today we are 700. Most of them I don’t know any more.
“Of course Manchester United is attractive but I always question myself. Am I happy here? The answer was yes.”
There was then a wry smile and an acknowledgement of the deep split in the fan base over the wisdom of keeping him at Arsenal for another two-year contract. “I was always happy here… more than people are happy with me.”
Saturday at least provided some respite after the fallout from both their dreadful performance against Liverpool and the end to their transfer window.
Danny Welbeck and Alexandre Lacazette had already won the game by the time Alexis Sanchez came on to what was a mixed fan reaction following the deadline-day collapse of his move to Manchester City. There has been no hiding his desire to leave but Wenger met Sanchez on Friday and is confident that he will not now undermine the team’s spirit.
The Chilean certainly looked sharp when he came on, although Welbeck’s two goals, another precise finish by Lacazette and Mesut Ozil’s influential display prompts a big quandary for Wenger in his attacking selections against Chelsea on Sunday. Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud and Alex Iwobi are also short of game-time but Thursday’s first Europa League match against Cologne should provide opportunities. Wenger is clearly planning for significant rotation.
“Alexis told me he is focused on the Premier League and Europa League,” said Wenger.
The Arsenal manager also does not believe that there is any cause for concern over Sanchez’s physical state after one of his former coaches in Chile had claimed that he was carrying excess weight. “He is not fat,” said Wenger. Goalkeeper Petr Cech has also spoken with Sanchez following his return from Chile. “He plays with all of his passion and heart,” said Cech.
The context for Arsenal’s performance was Bournemouth’s limitations and, after such extraordinary recent progress, their start to the season is now beginning to provoke alarm bells.
They had actually performed positively in losing 2-1 against Manchester City following a 98th-minute winner but only once seriously threatened here when Jermain Defoe hit a post at 2-0. Eddie Howe did not hesitate before describing it as one of the worst performances in his entire time as manager and, even after only four matches, is not about to fall back on cliches about not yet worrying about the table.
“I was looking after the first game, to be honest,” said Howe. “It’s that ruthless a league that you can’t give yourself too much to do in. We need points. However we get them, we need them. We’re going to have to start very soon.
“When you see so many players play well below their best, you have to take collective responsibility for that yourself rather than blaming them. We were not there. Of the four league performances we’ve had so far, I’d accept one of them. I won’t accept three of them. That’s a pretty damning verdict, so I have to do better.”