Arsene Wenger has opened up about his career in a startlingly bare interview with French media outlet RTL.
The Frenchman was the manager of Arsenal for the majority of his career, an impressive 22 years, winning 3 Premier League titles, 7 FA cups, 7 Community shields along with a host of minor and individual awards, most famous for leading the Gunners to the first ever completely unbeaten Premier League season with the Invincibles team.
Since leaving the club at the end of last season, the manager has been working for French media and broadcasting outlet beIN covering the world cup most recently with the company.
In the interview, one of the most shocking admissions is that staying at Arsenal for 22 years was “perhaps” his biggest mistake. Arsene said:
“I’ve been a prisoner of my own challenge at times.” The admission comes after an emotional goodbye at the Emirates, where Wenger sadly announced he’ll miss the fans.”
He also spoke of the decisions a football manager has to make, saying he would ask forgiveness to “all the people who I’ve made suffer” adding that:
“In my line of work, we are constantly making decisions that punish people, while making others happy. When you work with a 25 man-squad, it’s basically making 14 people unemployed every Saturday or Tuesday.”
As well as saying the players he was most proud of signing were Toure, Henry, Sol Campbell and Anelka due to their huge talent but low price, the wisened Gooner spoke philosophically of his values, and spoke on the art of football, saying:
“Values in football are about finding all that is beautiful about team sport. It’s self expression in a collective setting. Shared pleasure over individualism. Expression of beauty together is more beautiful than expression of beauty alone. And respect of your teammate, your opponent, the fan, the ref”
A true credit to the game of football, Arsene Wenger has truly left his mark on both Arsenal and world football as a whole, it may be a long time before someone enters the game with the same passion, competitiveness but also the love of the beautiful game above the winning game.
