Life won’t be a beach after I’ve departed

ARSENE WENGER expects to make an immediate return to management after admitting: “I don’t look very good on the beach.”

After 22 years at Arsenal the Frenchman might be expected to relax a little before contemplating his next move, or even retire given he is 68. Not a bit of it.

Wenger revealed he has already received dozens of offers since he announced he was leaving the Emirates and wants to continue as a coach.

On a day when he confirmed bad news concerning Laurent Koscielny – the defender has ruptured his Achilles and faces six months out – Wenger was contemplating his future with optimism.

“Have I received offers? Yes, more than I expected,” he said. “I’ve not considered anything yet. What is for sure is that I will be active. My brain demands work and is active. I have huge experience of management and people management. I will work.

“What will I do? I don’t know yet. I like green grass and I like to walk on it every morning. I don’t know if I’ll continue that, it’s possible. I don’t know how long I will continue for – as long as I feel I want to.

“People look at your age and make an issue of it. It becomes a bit of discrimination. They don’t really look how you work and perform. They look, ‘Oh, he is old’. I can understand that because I thought the same when I was young.

“I like the English saying, ‘You have to live every day like it’s your last’. One day you’ll be right.

“I’ve not made the decision so at the moment I would say yes, spontaneously yes [I’d prefer day-to-day management]. But maybe with distance I will think, ‘No, maybe it’s a time to change a little bit of direction’.

“But I don’t look very good on the beach. I have to turn the page and go for the next challenge.”

Wenger has not lost his sense of humour and joked he is still good enough to get into Arsenal’s team despite being a pensioner.

“I enjoy going out there every day, of course,” he said. “You know I didn’t miss a training session in 22 years, I never stayed in my office. Every day I was out there. That is something that I will miss.

“I keep myself fit – I can still play! If I was really objective then I would pick myself every week. We have staff games. I don’t play with the players. They are a bit too quick for me.” They were back in the day tonight’s rival revealed.

Leicester boss Claude Puel was the midfield bruiser who helped steer Monaco to the French title in Wenger’s first season in charge there.

But he did wonder whether he had shot himself in the foot after putting the boot in on the gaffer in a training session.

“In the beginning he liked to play in the little games,” said Puel. “One time the ball was between him and me and I touched it, but behind the ball was Arsene and he flew up in the air.

“He fell on his back and couldn’t move. The fitness coach took him in the dressing room and I was left with a bad feeling.

“The players were smiling and I was thinking, ‘It’s finished for me!’

“Of course he’ll get a friendlier welcome this time. I have a lot of respect for him.” Koscielny’s injury, picked up in the Europa League defeat at Atletico Madrid, will be of concern to supporters.

“Koscielny is devastated because he has surgery,” Wenger said ahead of the trip to Leicester. “That means he will be out for six months. You will not see him before the end of December, or maybe the beginning of December at best. He misses the World Cup as well.

“What is unusual in his case is that he had a tendon issue for a long time and usually they don’t rupture.”

Mohamed Elneny’s ankle injury keeps him out while Mesut Ozil’s back problem is likely to mean he will not play again this season.

There are suggestions Ozil’s team-mates are becoming frustrated at how many games he misses, but Wenger insists his issues are genuine and that the German is not hand-picking games.

“When he’s injured injured,” said Wenger.

“Sometimes a player can overcome the pain for one game, but then after that there’s a recurrence of inflammation.

“That’s what happened to him. He wanted to play on Sunday. It was an enjoyable game to play but at the moment he’s injured.” too, he’s as