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Wenger - It’s been a privilege for me

“Get people to enjoy what they see, and the players to enjoy what they do.”

Arsene Wenger celebrates his 20th anniversary as our manager on Saturday, and his mission statement is the same as it was on day one.

 The boss prefers not to dwell on milestones but he took time to reflect at his press conference on Friday - which began with a presentation from the chairman, Sir Chips Keswick.

“I’ve been helped by my resilience, passion and certainly the faith of the board, who stand by me,” said Wenger.

“I believe that this club is brave and that’s one of the good values of the club and we have shown through the years that we can have a good togetherness at the club. That is always the quality that came out through good and bad moments. We kept our feet on the ground and it always fell together.

“A lot has changed. [The art of management] has changed, the club has grown bigger, is now a global club. Twenty years ago it wasn’t as big, or as expensive!

“Football has become popular, it’s become a world sport. Today when I go out onto the training pitch, I see people from China or Hong Kong. Everything has changed and the pressure has intensified too. But what hasn’t changed is the solidarity inside the club. That’s always stayed the same.

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“I think it is a privilege for me, I do not look back. Maybe what people will keep [from my time] is the ‘Invincibles’ year, but for me the job of a manager is to do the maximum with what you have available and that is what I try to do.

“After it is like a marathon, you do one step after another and when you look back you have done the distance. We are obsessed always by the next game, the next game and that is what we expect always: the perfect game in the next one. That is what we work for.”

 

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