The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Arsene Wenger

  • Mourinho pays tribute to old rival Wenger

    Jose Mourinho once called Arsene Wenger a “specialist in failure’’ but, after the Arsenal manager announced he was stepping down at the end of the season, there was only respect.

    Asked by reporters on Friday whether he regretted some of his behaviour towards the Frenchman over the years, the Manchester United boss suggested the question betrayed a lack of understanding.

    “You are not a manager. You are not a player of course,” he said.

    Read Also: Wenger Quit Notice: He is leaving a big shoe -Kanu

    “You do not know the way we respect each other, even when sometimes it looks like in some moments we don’t.

    “In the end, probably the ones that respect each other more are the ones that have the problems,” added the Portuguese.

    “It is power against power, it is quality against quality, it is ambition against ambition.”

    Wenger, 68, announced on Friday that he would end a near 22-year reign at the north London club, during which he has become Arsenal’s most successful manager.

    Mourinho’s rivalry with Wenger dates from the younger manager’s arrival at Chelsea as a self-proclaimed “Special One’’ in 2004.

    In 2005, the Portuguese famously labelled the Frenchman a “voyeur” after becoming annoyed at comments from him about his Chelsea team.

    By 2014, when the “specialist in failure’’ comment was made, the rivalry had become so heated.

    Wenger even pushed Mourinho as the pair clashed in the technical area during a 2-0 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

    On Friday, Mourinho said he hoped Wenger did not retire from football.

    “If he’s happy I’m happy. If he’s sad, I’m sad,” he declared. “I always wish the best for my opponents.

    “Mr Wenger and Arsenal were for many, many years the biggest rivals of Sir Alex Ferguson’s era. I’m pretty sure that we as a club will show Mr Wenger the respect he deserves.”

    Mourinho, an English Premier League title winner with Chelsea, recognised what Wenger had achieved.

    “For us football people, the real football people, who are the ones inside the four lines, playing, or the managers… the football people don’t have short memories,” he said.

    “I know what it means, three Premier League titles and seven FA Cups, what he did in Japan and France…

    “What he brought to French football and what he gave to Arsenal in the period without Premier Leagues, the transition from stadium to stadium.

    “We know what he did,” he said.

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  • How love for Emirates crashed Wenger’s marriage

     

    One time manager of Liverpool Bill Shankly, who coached the club from 1959–1974   was so much in love with the club that it was described as some form of obsession.  But his became a minor case after Arsene Wenger’s love for Arsenal took a new dimension

    The about to exit Arsenal boss would watch footage of matches from around the world after he got back from the training ground, and attended Arsenal games at all levels, from academy up.

    His all-consuming fixation with football earned him the nickname ‘Professor’ with the club’s fans, but seems to have cost him his marriage to his long-time love.

    Wenger split from his wife Annie Brosterhous in 2015 following a five-year marriage. The couple have a 20-year-old daughter together.

    In 2008, he said: ‘Ten years ago I said to my wife, “Five more years and that’s all”, and I am still here.

    ‘It is difficult to find time to see them but there are jobs [which are worse]. You have guys who leave for work on Monday and come back on Friday.

    ‘In my job I travel, but the problem is not so much the quantity of time you spend with your family, it is the quality.

    ‘That is where this job is more damaging. You do not always give them the quality they deserve when you are at home because you are thinking of the next game.’

    He said at the time: ‘My wife likes watching football, she watches all the games of Arsenal at home. She is not a fanatic but she likes watching sports. No, she does not have much choice.’

    But in 2015 it emerged the couple had asked a judge in Paris to approve the first stages of their separation.

    Wenger’s obsession with football raises questions of what he will do now his 22-year reign at Arsenal has come to an end.

    The only time Wenger has not been at the Arsenal training ground from dawn until late has been when his Arsenal players were away on international duty, and even then he worked as a pundit on French TV.

    As well as a property in the exclusive village of Totteridge, north of London, he also has a family home in the beautiful Alsace village of Duttlenheim, where his parents once ran a cafe.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Wenger Quit Notice: He is leaving a big shoe -Kanu

     

    Nigeria international Nwankwo  Kanu says Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger will be leaving a big shoe that will be difficult to fill.

    Kanu who played for the Gunners from 1999 to 2004 making 119 appearances with 37 goals to his credit, recalled with nostalgia that his emirates sojourn marked the best period of his career. He particularly recalled being a member of the invisibles which also included Frenchman Thierry Henry when Arsenal were a torn on the flesh of many clubs and were difficult to beat, with their free flowing pattern of play that won them a lot of fans across the globe.

    ‘Big shoes for anyone to fill, playing for Arsenal under Arsene was one of the best period of my career, 2 premiership, 2

    FA cups, The invincibles, playing with some of the best assembled players,influencing millions of fans in Africa to support this great club,” he said

    One thing which Kanu who was in 2008 voted 13th in the “Gunners Greatest 50 players will not forget in a hurry was how the club stood by him when in his period of challenge when diagnosis of heart defect threatened his career.  The Former Africa footballer of the year many say remains one of the reasons while Arsenal boasts of so many fans in Africa, many of who remained loyal even after kanu left for West Brom in 2004 and then to Portsmouth in 2006.

    Wenger a former midfielder started his coaching career with Nancy a second division French side in 1984, moved on to Monaco, then Japanese side Nagoya Grampus Eight before finally pitching tent with Arsenal that turned to be home away from home for the 68 year old.

  • Breaking: Wenger to leave Arsenal at the end of season

    Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger has announced that he will resign as the club manager at the end of the season.

    The 68-year-old took charge of the club in 1996 and guided them to three Premier League titles and seven FA Cups.

    He has been under intense pressure after the club finished outside the league’s top four last season for the first time since Wenger arrived at the club in 1996, and are now 14 points behind fourth-placed Tottenham, with five matches remaining.

    Wenger in a statement posted on Arsenal website, said it was time for him to step down.

    “After careful consideration and following discussions with the club, I feel it is the right time for me to step down at the end of the season.

    “I am grateful for having had the privilege to serve the club for so many memorable years.

    “I managed the club with full commitment and integrity.

    “I want to thank the staff, the players, the Directors and the fans who make this club so special.

    “I urge our fans to stand behind the team to finish on a high.

    “To all the Arsenal lovers take care of the values of the club. My love and support for ever.”

    Arsenal Majority owner Stan Kroenke said Wenger had an exceptional record that will never be matched at the club.
    “This is one of the most difficult days we have ever had in all our years in sport. One of the main reasons we got involved with Arsenal was because of what Arsène has brought to the club on and off the pitch” he said.
    “His longevity and consistency over such a sustained period at the highest level of the game will never be matched”.

    “Arsène has unparalleled class and we will always be grateful to him. Everyone who loves Arsenal and everyone who loves football owes him a debt of gratitude. Three Premier League titles, including an entire season unbeaten, seven FA Cup triumphs and 20 successive years in the Champions League is an exceptional record. He has also transformed the identity of our club and of English football with his vision for how the game can be played”.

    “We have high ambitions to build on Arsène’s remarkable tenure and to honour his vision by ensuring that Arsenal competes for and wins the biggest and most important prizes in the game.

    “We must now focus on making a strong finish to the season and ask our millions of fans around the world to join us in paying appropriate tribute to one of the greats of Arsenal’s history and one of the greats of the game.”

    Arsène will lead the team to the end of the season and we will make an appointment as soon as possible. The club will not be making any further comment on the selection process until an appointment is made.

    Arsenal will face Atletico Madrid in the Europa League semi-final with the first leg to come on April 26

  • Arsenal boss Wenger criticises Premier League’s VAR delay

    Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said the Premier League’s decision to delay the implementation of the video assistant referee (VAR) system means the English top flight is being left behind.

    The 20 top-flight teams voted against introducing the system for the leagues 2018-19 seasons after trial runs in the cup competitions received mixed reviews.

    “The Premier League has been created with people who had a progressive mind…,” Wenger told reporters after Arsenal’s 2-1 league defeat by Newcastle United on Sunday.

    “Overall, I believe that with that decision we are behind the rest of the world.

    Read Also: Arsenal’s Wenger understands Mertesacker’s wish to retire

    “The young generation is used to (VAR) and worldwide they might move away from us because they see that in other countries they do it.

    “Unfortunately the Premier League has again decided not to go for VAR and personally I believe that is a very, very bad decision,” Wenger added.

    “Every big game this season has been decided by mistakes that could have been avoided with VAR, especially in the Champions League with Manchester City and Liverpool.”

    Arsenal host West Ham United on Sunday.

    NAN

  • Arsenal’s Wenger understands Mertesacker’s wish to retire

    Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says he understands club skipper Per Mertesacker’s desire to stop playing next season because of the mental and physical toll the game has taken on the German.

    The World Cup-winning defender said in an interview with German publication Der Spiegel that his “body was finished” and that he would rather sit on the bench or in the stands.

    Mertesacker has made only 11 appearances for Arsenal this season.

    Arsenal had already announced the 33-year-old would take up a role with the Premier League club’s academy next season.

    Wenger was asked about Mertesacker’s comments at a news conference on the eve of Thursday’s Europa League last 16 clash at home to AC Milan which they lead 2-0 from the first leg.

    “The quotes weren’t a surprise for me,” Wenger said.

    “To be a pro footballer is high expectations. They are very demanding of themselves and that creates stress.

    “There is huge expectation from the environment they are in and that creates stress. To play at the level they play you need a huge resistance to stress. You are depending on your body.”

    Wenger described Mertesacker, who he signed from Werder Bremen in 2011, as the model professional and said he could change his mind about playing again.

    Read Also: Suffering is part of my job – Wenger

    “I think once you stop for a few months you are ready to play again,” Wenger said. “Of course, he’s had a very long career and he puts pressure (on himself) in every single training (session).

    “He never plays one minute without being totally focussed and that demands a huge amount of effort which is why he made the career he has made.”

    Wenger’s side have had an upturn in form after a four-match losing sequence in all competitions, beating Milan away followed by a 3-0 Premier League win at home to Watford.

    However, they are 12 points adrift of fourth-placed Liverpool so their most realistic hope of qualifying for next season’s Champions League is by winning the Europa League.

    Midfielder Aaron Ramsey said finishing off Milan would not be easy but the Europa League was a ‘massive opportunity’.

    “We saw how good they are and we can’t take our foot off the gas,” the Welshman said. “We’ll treat it as 0-0 and go out to try and win the game, that’s the right mentality.

    “It’s a massive opportunity for us. This game is very important for us and our season.”

    NAN

  • Suffering is part of my job – Wenger

    Suffering is part of my job – Wenger

    Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says suffering is all part of being a manager and admits he has had his fair share of late.

    Yet the smile returned to the Frenchman’s face on Friday after his side snapped a four-match losing streak to beat AC Milan 2-0 in the San Siro the previous evening.

    Arsenal closed in on the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League.

    “Any manager will tell you that when you don’t get results the first thing affected is the mood, the lack of sleep,” Wenger said.

    “I’ve managed in 820 or so Premier League games and 200 odd European games but there is no possibility not to suffer. You have to suffer. You have to be capable to go through periods when it’s very difficult.”

    Wenger’s future at Arsenal, where he has been in charge since 1996, has been a source of constant debate.

    His team are down in sixth place in the English Premier League, having suffered a 3-0 thrashing by Manchester City in the English League Cup final.

    He says he has had messages of support from past and current managers, even old adversary Alex Ferguson, and that finding solutions to problems remains an addictive part of the job.

    “The desire to find solutions is interesting as well,” he said. “When you are a young manager you think you can win every game but it’s not like that. It is to survive the disappointments. It can make you a better manager.”

    Wenger says money and ‘starification’ has become too important in football.

    “At the end of the day I have to stand up for what is important for the club,” he said. “I am thankful that I have respect in the game. Football is first about values but my regret is that has gone underwater.”

    Wenger says some of the recent criticism aimed at himself and his players have been over the top.

    “We have to have a little perspective. We got to a Cup final and we fight to be in a Cup final,” the 68-year-old said. “We played against the best team in the country.

    “We have been in four finals in the last five years and lost once, against Man City who is the best team in the country. So, it’s surprising the intensity the storm the players have faced.”

    Arsenal face Watford on Sunday with their hopes of a top-four finish hanging by a thread, as they trail fourth-placed Tottenham by 13 points.

    They will be without injured Alexandre Lacazette and Hector Bellerin against Watford while Sead Kolasinac is a doubt with an ankle problem.

    NAN

  • Everton ready to offer Wenger soft landing

    Everton ready to offer Wenger soft landing

     

    EVERTON are set to offer Arsene Wenger an immediate return to Premier League management if he is sacked by Arsenal.

    Wenger’s Arsenal reign hit its lowest point as his side crashed to defeat at Brighton, the first time they have lost four games on the trot in 16 years.

    The ‘Wenger Out’ banners were out in force at the Amex Stadium while sections of Arsenal’s travelling fans chanted for the axe to fall.

    But the under-fire boss is wanted by Everton owner Farhad Moshiri, who feels Wenger is the ideal candidate to revive the Merseyside club’s fortunes.

    Asked if he feared his long reign as Gunners boss was coming to an end, Wenger replied: “I don’t want to talk about my future today. At the moment, my future is not my main worry.

    “My worry is to get Arsenal winning football games. Then we’ll see where we go from there. I’ll try and give my best as long as I am here.”

    It remains to be seen whether Arsenal’s board are ready to show Wenger the door, either before the end of the season or in the summer when his contract will still have one more year to run.

    But Iranian billionaire Moshiri is already preparing for life without Sam Allardyce, who looks on borrowed time at Everton after they slumped to their sixth successive away defeat at Watford on Saturday.

    And Wenger is top of Moshiri’s list for the rebuilding job at Goodison Park.

    Prior to Moshiri’s Goodison investment he was involved in Arsenal, owning 15% of the club alongside Uzbek-born Russian business magnate Alisher Usmanov.

    Despite Everton’s interest, Wenger, 68, maintains he is still the man to rejuvenate Arsenal.

    “I’ve done it before,” he said. “I believe a quality of manager is to try and shorten a crisis, and I believe I can do that.”

    Those Arsenal supporters calling for his head will take some convincing, while Arsenal skipper Laurent Koscielny claimed Wenger must take his share of the blame.

    “The player has responsibility on the pitch and the boss has responsibility too” said Koscielny.

    “We need to be together. It’s difficult to say it’s his fault or our fault. It’s everyone in the club.”

  • Wenger:My focus is on City match not season review

    Wenger:My focus is on City match not season review

     

    Arsene Wenger has fired back over doubts surrounding his future as Arsenal manager

    Wenger has refused to confirm he will be Arsenal manager next season as uncertainty over his future mounts.

    In an intriguing press conference, the Frenchman grew tetchy at questions about his job, ultimately declining to confront assertions that his time at the club is drawing to a close.

    The under-pressure boss claimed he is ‘amazed’ his job is under such scrutiny given he has ‘turned down the world’ to remain in north London.

    Wenger has rejected approaches from Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich during his tenure at Arsenal.

    But Sportsmail revealed this week that the club will review Wenger’s position this summer with the prospect of ending his 22-year reign emerging as a genuine option.

    And in response to the scrutiny over his job and the pending review, Wenger said: ‘My position is my position.

    ‘Honestly, that’s the last worry I have at the moment. My worry is to focus, to get the team ready for tomorrow’s game (against Manchester City).’

    When asked to confirm whether he has been informed of the end of season review, Wenger continued: ‘I just told you, I just gave you the answer of what my way of thinking is.

    ‘It’s the next game. We are in that kind of situation where you want to focus on the next game. I don’t ask you if your position is reviewed at the end of the season.

    ‘My job is to focus on performing and my job is to perform. It’s for other people to judge me; it isn’t for me to evaluate that.

    Meanwhile the club have  announced that they made a huge profit from their summer transfer dealings, as the club struggles to make the Premier League top four.

    The club sold Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Wojciech Szczesny, Kieran Gibbs and Gabriel in the summer, leaving the club with a massive financial surplus.

    In their financial results for the six months until the end of November 2017, Arsenal revealed they have made ‘profits on sale of players, amounting to £58.4million’.

  • Wenger admits Arsenal’s defeat a massive blow

    Wenger admits Arsenal’s defeat a massive blow

     

    Arsene Wenger admitted his hopes of a top-four finish and a swift return to the Champions League had taken a serious blow at the hands of Tottenham.

    Arsenal trail seven points behind their north London neighbours after the 1-0 defeat at Wembley and are five points adrift of fifth-placed Chelsea, who play at home to West Bromwich Albion, on Monday.

    ‘This was a game we couldn’t afford to lose,’ said Wenger. ‘That makes it much more difficult now but we have to fight as long as we have a mathematical chance.

    ‘There was more at stake than the derby, I said that before the game, and that is why it is so disappointing to lose the way we lost it.’

    The Arsenal boss refused to embrace the possible consolation of claiming a ticket to the Champions League by winning the Europa League, as Manchester United did last year.

    ‘It is too early,’ said Wenger. ‘Football is not about switching off for three games and switching it on for one game.

    ‘Man United decided that once they were in the semi-final but we are far from the semi-final and I think we have to fight to have a chance to come back.

    ‘Overall it is a very disappointing result because the priority has to be to get to the Champions League through the Premier League.

    ‘I am not a great fan of the Europa League being a qualifier for the Champions League because I think it is not right.

    ‘If it is an opportunity we will have to try to take it as well but the priority is still the Premier League.’

    Arsenal’s next game in away against Ostersunds of Sweden, on Thursday, in the last 32 of the Europa League.

    Just seven days on from a five-goal demolition of Everton and Arsene Wenger was bemoaning the lack of creativity, wastefulness and mental fortitude of his Arsenal team as the revival quickly came unstuck.

    January signings, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, so influential a week earlier, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, were easily silenced by Tottenham.

    Mesut Ozil, forced wide in a tactical switch to accommodate another central midfielder, promptly disappeared.

    And Alex Lacazette, a £53million summer signing displaced by the much-trumpeted arrival of the even more costly Aubameyang, was understandably devoid of confidence when he came on as a late substitute.