LONDON - Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger credits growing
up in a pub for helping to shape his outlook on life and knowledge
of football.
Wenger's parents owned a bistro called La Croix d'Or in the
little French village of Duttlenheim where he would spend hours in
the company of the football-loving customers.
The Frenchman spoke about his early life at the League Managers
Association's conference at his Premier League club's Emirates
Stadium on Thursday.
"There is no better psychological education than growing up in a
pub because when you are five or six years old you meet all
different people and hear how cruel they can be to each other, " he
told delegates.
"You hear the way they talk to each other like saying 'You're a
liar.' And from an early age you get a practical psychological
education into the minds of people.
"It is not often that a boy of five or six is always living with
adults in a little village.
"I even learned about tactics and selection from the people
talking about football in the pub... who plays on the left wing and
who should be in the team."
Wenger, who turns 60 next month, became a manager in his early
30s and had thought he would retire from the job at 50.
"I said I'd stop at 50 but now I don't believe in retiring
unless you have to. I never have days where I think I can live
without it. But I know some day I will do something different."