Thinking of retiring makes me panic a bit
SAYS ARSENE WENGER
When Arsene Wenger bumped i nto Si r Alex Ferguson last season, there was one truth he was keen to unlock. ‘I said: “Come on, don’t you miss it?”’ grinned Wenger. ‘he came to meet me after the game when we played at Man United.
‘he says “no”. he had enough. he still goes to every game. he has horses. I have no horses.’
Wenger is eight years Ferguson’s junior but is 65, an age when normal people might consider winding down.
‘It crosses sometimes my mind,’ said the Arsenal boss. ‘But for no longer than five seconds, because I panic a little bit.’
Wenger is preparing for his 20th campaign in the Barclays Premier League.
Some of his youngest players were not born when he arrived, and only ‘with difficulty’ can he imagine working at another club.
his enthusiasm, however, has not changed.
‘I am more committed than ever,’ said Wenger. ‘The number of times you have done it doesn’t count. It is how much you love what you do that counts.
‘And the love is not necessarily diminished by the number of times you’ve done it.
‘With every defeat people say: “What’s this guy doing?”.
‘You have an exam every three days. You have no way to look back. You have to prepare for the next one and come out of it successful.
‘When you analyse my time here, you will see I did not lose many times three games on the trot.
‘The job of a manager, as well, is to reduce the time of crisis.
‘I want to do well for the club and, when I leave one day, leave it in a position where it can go on.’
Among rivals for whom money can be no object, Wenger has been criticised for resisting spending and a faction of Arsenal fans remain convinced it is time for change.
he avoids social media, but this does not protect him from personal abuse in a public job, as he found when he was jeered at Stoke-on-Trent railway station after a defeat last year.
‘experience helps you anticipate what you will face,’ said Wenger.
‘ There are unpredictable responses. You would not expect people to insult you on the way to the train.
‘That’s where experience helps. You have a good assessment of who you are and you’re not influenced by what people say, whether it’s too positive and too negative.’
nine trophy-free years have been ended by back-to-back FA Cup wins, and there is quiet confidence inside Arsenal about competing more closely for the league title.
‘What is true is we have stability we didn’t have before,’ said Wenger. ‘I was more exposed to who will go and now the question I get more is who will come?
‘Our potential on the market has changed and, if you ask me, will we win the Premier League, I just say we want to.
‘We will try and give everything but it will be an open competition.
‘We feel we have a chance, all is going well. We have reduced the gap and I believe we are ready to go further.
‘ however, you cannot make guarantees in the Premier League.
‘Again, there are five or six competitors. It’s difficult to guess how strong the other teams are. We will fight to win, but it is difficult.’
There have been times when he knew, even as the season began, that Arsenal would not compete.
‘When you lose your best players it is impossible,’ said Wenger, with the likes of Samir nasri, Robin van Persie and Cesc Fabregas in mind.
Before that, Patrick Vieira, Ashley Cole and Thierry henry.
‘You see opponents strengthen when they are already stronger than you,’ he added.
‘You just get into the top four and see others still strengthening. On top of that, you’re losing your best players, and it is difficult to be sure you can still win the league.
‘I know if I could have won the league or not. The year we lost it at Birmingham (2007/08), we could have won the league.
‘Last year, no, because after six games we were 11 points behind Chelsea and to catch 11 points back was nearly impossible.’
hearing him talk openly about the exodus and its problem only reinforces the idea that this phase is over.
Arsenal are into the delivery stage of a project which started with the move from highbury.
While questions remain in some positions, a strong squad has been enhanced. The elite quality of Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Petr Cech has been added without destroying the framework.
‘Stability is undervalued and that is what we want to show,’ said Wenger. ‘We have stability and that gives us strength.
‘Chelsea have stability, especially defensively. They took advantage of it from the start of the season.
‘Last year, we missed our start for different reasons. One of them was that after the World Cup some players were not mentally ready.
‘We also had the Champions League qualifier that cost us a lot of energy against Besiktas.
‘But again, we have a tricky start; West ham look to have bought well and Crystal Palace are a strong team. We have to be ready.’
Arsenal’s last title was won after a summer when the marquee summer signing was a goalkeeper — Jens Lehmann.
eleven years on and the only major recruit is Cech, who was able to cross London with the blessing of Roman Abramovich.
Cech’s move promises to be one of the narratives of the season. Is he a missing piece in a jigsaw? Can he help Arsenal shake free of Jose Mourinho’s mental hold?
Wenger insists there is no such hold over him or his club.
‘I don’t believe in that. Chelsea have lost against weaker opponents than us in previous years,’ he said.
As for Cech, he added: ‘There was a deal that he could go, no matter where, for a certain price, and that’s why it happened.
‘It wasn’t too big a surprise to me because they couldn’t keep him forever at 33 years of age as the no 2 keeper.
‘Goalkeeper is a special problem now in the game. If you don’t have two top ones you’re in trouble. And if you have two top ones, the number two says I want to play as well.’
he will not rule out more signings before the end of August, but there will be no surprise if Cech proves his only business.
‘We can still buy, but I don’t think we’ll sell,’ said Wenger, and he still wants to develop Arsenal’s own talent.
‘We want to combine stronger financial resources with faith in our philosophy.
‘We want to give chances to youngsters and build players from inside our club with our culture.
‘Most clubs who have been successful have done that well. Take Barcelona or Man United, who had a generation and built their success on players who came from within.
‘These are our values and DNA and we want to keep that.’ United have veered from this philosophy, spending on a number of established international stars. It may be a reason why Ferguson does not miss it. ‘With success, they have created huge financial resources and t oday t here i s no patience for them to continue what they did,’ said Wenger. he looks set to launch into the task. Then, it seemed as if he had already started.
‘ Yo u woul d be surprised what the average 18- year- old footballer earns,’ the Frenchman said.