Wenger claims to suffer from ‘age discrimination’

Arsene Wenger has claimed that demands for him to leave Arsenal are down to age discrimination.

The 68-year-old has been subjected to increasing hostility from supporters who feel the Frenchmen should step down before his contract expires next year.

Although Arsenal have now gone 14 seasons without winning the title, Wenger feels the opposition to him has grown in recent years because of prejudice against older managers.

“Look, when you age, you focus on doing well for your club and ignore all the rest,” Wenger told bein Sports.

“The older you get, the more it becomes age discrimination. I accept if the results are not good enough then you have to take the consequences.

“But, overall, that perpetual thing – how long you have been at a club, how old you are – I find that a bit difficult to take.

“But all the rest I have to accept because I am in a public job and have to make results and I accept I will be judged on results.”

Wenger, who has managed Arsenal since 1996, suggested that criticism of his regime fails to give due credit to his overall contribution to the club.

He has won three FA Cups in the past four years to add to the three Premier League titles and four FA Cups won in the first decade of his reign.

“I am maybe naive enough to believe that with the time going on, with perspective and context, what will stand out is what I have done for my club,” he said, “and not so much the result of the last game when I stop one day.”