Wenger, in the stress-filled Arsenal hot seat. To
retire along with Fergie?
Arsene Wenger celebrates 12 years in charge of
Arsenal tomorrow and admits he
has been fighting thoughts about retirement for some time. ‘I told
my wife: "At 55, I stop, I promise you" and at 55, I said 60. Now I
don’t speak any more,’ said the 58-year-old Arsenal manager, who
will be 61 when his contract expires in 2011.
‘I will give myself to the end of my contract and then have a
serious checkpoint. You don’t want to go on too long. I don’t want
to walk away at the moment but in two or three years, things can
change in any job.
‘I am super-motivated. I have the desire but that desire can go.
My strength can go. You have to be conscious of that in a job where
you have to have your health first of all to cope with the
demands.’
Wenger has won three Barclays Premier League titles and four FA
Cups but finds it hard to contain his excitement when he talks
about the potential of his latest crop of young players.
It could feasibly evolve into his greatest work - a dashing
young team nurtured from the academy he inspired himself - and he
is not likely to quit with it is still in progress. It could embody
everything he has worked towards since arriving in 1996.
'When I arrived I would have laughed if someone had said I’d be
here 12 years,’ said Wenger. ‘I am not very happy to speak about my
anniversary because what interests me in life is what is in front
of me and not what is behind me. If you came to my house, you
wouldn’t find anything from the past 12 years.
‘This is part of the sickness of this job - you know what you’ve
done is soon forgotten and what is important is what happens
tomorrow. 'You spend your life worrying about the future, always
expecting the next game, the next game and the next game. It
becomes something almost perverse. It takes over your brain
completely and you never take time to look back.’
When the Wenger reign began, today’s opponents,
Hull, had just been relegated
to the bottom tier of English football and their situation would
get far worse before it started to get better.
‘I take my hat off to Hull,’ said Wenger. ‘What they have done
is fantastic.’ Arsenal defender Gael Clichy is fit to play against
the Tigers but still angry that Kevin Davies escaped a red card for
a tackle on him at Bolton last weekend.
He is equally unhappy with ex-players like Mark Lawrenson and
Alan Shearer for claiming it was ‘hard but fair’. ‘I've seen it
again many times and the only thing I can say is that it was a
stupid challenge,’ said Clichy.
‘He got the ball of course but to allow a player like this to
carry on playing is really difficult. 'I have been really lucky on
this challenge. I’m lucky to be here and to be playing on
Saturday.’
