Wenger ready to take a bow
END OF AN ERA: LAST FEW WEEKS HAVE BEEN BITTERSWEET
Frenchman leaves knowing he was club’s greatest manager.
Arsene Wenger admits his long goodbye from Arsenal has been a bittersweet experience as he prepares to finally say farewell tomorrow. The Frenchman will take charge for the last time as his 22year reign comes to an end with the Gunners’ Premier League clash at Huddersfield.
The 68-year-old has been on a prolonged farewell tour since Arsenal announced on April 20 that he had agreed to part ways following another troubled season.
Wenger has tried to stay focused on football, but he conceded it hasn’t always been easy.
“I enjoyed some aspects of it, yes – but not all,” Wenger said during his final pre-match press conference this week.
“It was not always easy to cut slowly with what you do every day and always you want to do it as well as you can and you don’t want to forget to thank people who deserve it.
“There are some people here who I employed 20 years ago and who fought for me every single day so it is not easy to say goodbye.”
While Arsenal have insisted Wenger’s exit was on mutual terms, the Gunners boss had dropped several hints that he would have preferred to stay on for the final year of his contract.
But that was impossible after Arsenal’s dismal run left them languishing in sixth in the Premier League amid growing fan unrest.
The final weeks of Wenger’s reign have seen that inconsistent form continue as the Gunners crashed out of the Europa League semifinal against Atletico Madrid – condemning the club to another season without Champions League football.
A 3-1 defeat at Leicester on Wednesday leaves Arsenal without an away league point in 2018.
The highlights of Wenger’s farewell have been home victories over West Ham and Burnley, the latter followed by an emotional on-pitch presentation to mark his final match in charge at the Emirates Stadium.
Wenger would have liked the announcement of his departure to have been delayed until the end of the season to avoid all the attention.
“Yes, of course. Because there was more questioning as well, you do not feel the same adhesion to what you do and when you stay here for such a long period you question yourself ‘is it time now to go or not?’” he said.
“We live in a society where people want quick change and that has changed in recent years.”
Wenger led Arsenal to three Premier League titles and seven FA Cups, as well as reaching the Champions League final in 2006 and transforming English football with his ground-breaking commitment to sports science.
Those feats will see Wenger ranked as Arsenal’s greatest manager, but the urbane Frenchman’s professorial image sometimes obscured his fierce will to win.
He engaged in long-running feuds with Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson, while battling several bosses in touchline rows that even turned physical.
“I’m very passionate and at a very young age, I realised that if I wanted to survive in this job, I had to get control of my emotions or I wouldn’t survive,” he said. –