Wenger warns young managers
LONDON. - Arsene Wenger has warned younger managers that they have to live like “a football priest” and “sacrifice your life” in order to cope with the high demands of the job.
The 67-year-old Wenger has insisted he has no plans of retiring any time soon, but said he can understand younger colleagues like Barcelona’s Luis Enrique who say they need a break from management.
The 46-year-old Enrique announced on Wednesday he would leave the post after this season, in part because he felt tired after working such long hours.
Wenger celebrated his 20th anniversary at Arsenal in October and hasn’t taken a long break at any stage during his career - unlike the likes of Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp, who also took brief sabbaticals recently.
“I am a specialist in masochism,” Wenger joked when asked how he has lasted so long.
“Look, I think everybody experiences that in a different way. What I can say, yes, it’s very demanding. It’s a sacrifice of your life. You have nothing else happening in your life,” he added. “Basically you get 90 percent aggravation and 10 percent top satisfaction and you have to give everything in your life for that.
“You have to be ready for it. That’s what I always say to all the young people who want to go into this job. ‘Are you ready to sacrifice your life?’ It’s like a priest. You’re a football priest.”
While Wenger clearly wants to stay in management, his future at Arsenal remains uncertain amid widespread fan anger at the team’s poor results recently. Wenger’s contract expires this season, but he reiterated on Thursday that his “preference has always been” to stay with the Gunners.
But he remained in a seemingly good mood ahead of tonight’s difficult trip to Liverpool, joking that the media criticism could soon force him into a break much longer than Guardiola’s one-year hiatus after he left Barcelona.
“Because of you I will have 10 years out!” he said with a laugh.
But on a more serious note, he said the constant pressure of managing a top club also helps bring the best out of an individual.
“I believe as well it allowed me to get to the next level as a human being, to develop my strengths in what makes a human being great as well,” he said. “To get the best out of people, that is absolutely fantastic. And of course you have disappointments, with people, with results.
“But it is as well a fantastic opportunity in life to go for what is really great in human beings, to get yourself to the next level always, to improve, to invent yourself, to push your limits further up and not to have an average life. And on that front it is very interesting, it is very demanding, but as well very interesting if you really face the challenge. By accepting as well, facing the reality, in an objective way, what you have to do to get better.”
Wenger, brought up as a practising Catholic, knows that for many managers of his age, the spirit may be willing but the flesh is often weak. Yet that has never been a problem for him as he continues to pursue a spartan lifestyle which includes a punishing exercise regime.
He claimed: “You have to be physically and mentally fit. I run every day and I still play football.
“If we have a game at the end of the season, I will play as a winger and you can be full-back. And I think I will win!”
But Wenger’s immediate challenge is convincing his faltering Arsenal team that they can still achieve big things this season. The Gunners are still reeling from last month’s chastening defeats at Chelsea and Bayern Munich.
And they could drop to sixth place in the Premier League table if they lose again at Liverpool tonight. Arsenal have not won away in the league against any of their topsix rivals since a 2-0 triumph at Manchester City in January 2015.
Wenger acknowledged: “We have not done well in these kind of games recently, so the result at Anfield will have vital consequences for the rest of our season.” - ESPN.