Arsene Wenger
Arsene Wenger
Arsène Wenger, OBEɛʁ]; born 22 October 1949), is a French football manager and former player. He has been the manager of Arsenal since 1996, where he has since become the club's longest-serving manager and most successful in terms of major titles won. Football pundits give Wenger credit for his contribution to the revolutionising of football in England in the late 1990s through the introduction of changes in the training and diet of players...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth22 October 1949
CityStrasbourg, France
CountryFrance
I have only been here since 1996 but between 1966 and 1996 England had thirty years without foreign players and didn't win any more competitions in that time.
Sometimes now, when I watch continental games on television, I'm a bit bored. I ask, 'where is the intensity?'
If I were going to war I would want to be alongside an Englishman not a Frenchman. The Frenchman would think too much.
Work on your strong points because they are what made you.
We played a whole season unbeaten but you did not see me every week jumping on the tables. Once it's over it's over and you do in the next one as well as you can. Plenty of managers who have won the Champions League will not be considered great managers.
I would be much more annoyed if we hadn't won the game. As a manager, you have to see the positives and I think Pires has a vaccine for the rest of his life.
I am in a job where you always look in front of you. Unfortunately, the older you get, the less distance there is in front of you.
If you eat caviar every day it's difficult to return to sausages.
As far as I'm concerned, this guy should never play football again. The answer you normally get after a tackle like that is 'he is not the type of guy who does that.' It's like a guy who kills one time in his life - it's enough. You have a dead person. This tackle is absolutely horrendous.
The score is high and very brutal but does not reflect what we saw on the pitch. The first shot on goal was a goal. The second was an own goal. The third was straight after half-time. They defend like mad and they catch us on the break.
It's a strange atmosphere always over there, it is darker and less glamorous, and you don't feel as high. It is a different kind of test - can you raise your level in a less exciting environment and perhaps still a very difficult one?
I take pride in the fact that people go home having felt that for 90 minutes today, life is beautiful - and that's it, basically. That's why professional football exists.
The real revelation of a player's character is not in his social life but in how he plays. In my social life I can hide my real personality.
At a young age winning is not the most important thing... the important thing is to develop creative and skilled players with good confidence.