Arsene Wenger is one of the finest and most successful managers that Arsenal has ever had.
The Frenchman was at the helm for more than 20 years before he was ousted in 2018.
Despite being at the club for that long, the final 14 years of his reign saw the Gunners miss out on winning the Premier League and the club finished sixth in his final season.
Fans began to protest for him to be removed as they watched sides like Manchester City and Liverpool become stronger with better managers of their own.
Arsenal fired him in 2018 and named Unai Emery as his successor. Wenger was reluctant to leave at the time and he didn’t feel that he had done badly to be let go.
Speaking to The Times recently, the Frenchman finally admitted that he may have overstayed at the Emirates as Arsenal’s manager.
Wenger told The Times: “Listening to that question makes me think, ‘Yes.’
“Maybe I stayed too long… I don’t know.
“But I was committed like on the first day.
“I think I guided the club through the most difficult period in a very successful way.
“At some stage people say you’re too old, but they don’t really look at what you do.
“I served the club as much as I could.”
Looking forward to seeing him on Graham Norton!
There is no doubt that he had the best interests of the club at heart. It was an obsession in my book
Isn’t that what supporting The Arsenal is though?
An obsession?
No it’s not to me
It’s a way of life that also includes lots of other pleasures too – mainly getting out on the golf course
Ken, I would welcome your views on my post below please. If speaking the truth gets me banned once again, then so be it. There is no altenative, ever, for me to complete truth. Opinions are one thing and we will all have our own but on this headline it was simply factually untrue.
Have replied below Jon.
Obsession = a persistent preoccupation of hope and ideas – the state of being obsessed, often associated with anxiety and/or mental illness…as per the Oxford Dictionary:
That sums up my thoughts, especially on a match day, or when I’m hiding behind the sofa with my fingers crossed, or of course, debating nearly every day on JustArsenal – that’s an obsession!!!!
My other interests are not obsessive, but are pleasurable and calming, things that I choose to do – with The Arsenal I HAVE to do it…rituals that I must follow, otherwise they might lose a game.
Lovely from A Saint-Maximin, playing the way I imagined pepe would for us 😢
That’s wishful thinking!! He is such a beast..
He really is lol only cost Newcastle 16.5 mill for a six year deal too 😭😭
What a steal!! I’d have loved him…
“Maybe I stayed too long, I don’t know” is NOT an admission! It is the thinking reply of a deep thinker to a slightly difficult question.
What would have been an admission but what he did NOT say was “Yes , I definitely stayed too long”.
I am constantly amazed at the poor headlines on here that pass for accuracy when they are far from accurate! I realise sensationalism gets clicks but it is not an honest way to get them and that is why I , almost alone at times, object to half truths and falsehoods.
Without truth and honesty you will always avoid the actual heart of what happened or happens. Truth is clearly of little worry to some people, but to me it is always paramount. In fact , either you want truth OR you don’t, There is no half way on THIS matter.
The realities of sustaining and trying to profit from a website are perhaps separate from a manager acknowledging that the first period of their time a a club, for whatever reason, were more successful than the latter years.
Well Jon, I am not able to read Arsene Wenger’s mind, but as you know, I have often said that “the truth will out at some point”.
I look at what happened to himonce he did leave and what has happened since then to the club and I wonder what has really changed for the better ( taking out Mikel Arteta)?
It was thought that with AW going, things would change for the better – I’m not talking about results or trophies here – I’m talking about transfer policies, type of players bought in and sold, tactics and the involvement of kronkie…all of which was promised by Stanley and Gazidis.
None of this has materialised and in most cases is just the same, or even worse.
Here we are, struggling to get rid of players that were bought, both under AW and also gazidis and his three musketeers.
Here we are, letting players run down their contracts and leaving for free.
Here we are, struggling to find the money to buy a £45,000,000 player, while singing a thirty one year old on a free transfer.
Here we are, bringing in loan players, who either are unfit or hardly ever feature.
Here we are, not knowing from one game to another, what the tactics are and what team will be selected.
Here we are, being promised nigh on the earth by Stanley and Josh, only to see our hopes dashed once again.
As I said, I can’t read Arsene’s mind, but up to December, he must have been watching our club and it’s fans IMPLODE in such a way that he must have asked himself this – what has improved since I left?
Could that be why he is asking himself the question “Maybe I stayed too long…I don’t know?”
As a unswerving supporter of Arsene, I believe he should have gone after the magnificent cup win against Chelsea, but he didn’t and perhaps that’s what he is thinking, who knows?
What I do see today, however, is a man who looks so much healthier, younger and someone who is enjoying his life again.
There is no doubt he put body and soul into his time at our club and I am hoping his autobiography might give us an insight into what he and all other managers of The Arsenal have to contend with – for which they are handsomely awarded it must be said.
Time is a great healer and it seems Arsene is now hoping to one day come back to the Emirates and see the club he is as passionate about as you and I.
He has even hinted that he would be willing to go “upstairs” and what a great Ambassador for the club he would be.
Not sure if that answers your question Jon, but there you go…I’ve given it my best shot and I believe Arsene Wenger to be an honest man, so if he doesn’t know for sure, than that’s what he feels personally.
Great response Ken and my frivolous response to yours on obsession appears below by mistake
YeahKen- “Maybe I stayed too long”. What a difficult decision to make that must of been for him. I wonder if the £9m salary entered his thoughts at all
Of course Phil, Emery and Arteta waas/are doing the job for nothing then?
If either of them manage(d) twenty years of top four and CL, perhaps the club would see that they are worth rewarding financially, in order for the likes of Barca, RM, PSG and Bayern to be kept at bay.
The point was Ken- he wasn’t just working for his undoubted love of the club. He was very very well paid to get results. He failed at the end and was subsequently sacked. It was just far too late.
Of course he got paid for his results – he delivered right until the last season, when we finished sixth and got knocked out in the 3rd round.
For every year that we qualified for the CL, that simple renumeration paid Arsene’s salary for the year…in his last year of CL football, the club received 12.7 million euros by qualifying and, in actual fact during the 2016/17 season the club earnt 64,573,000 euros from the CL, then times that by twenty (inflation considered) and you can see the vast amount of money his team bought to the club and as Arsene didn’t sign his reported £9,000,000 a year salary until the 31st May 2017, after their seventh cup final win under him, I suggest you work out who benefitted the most from these figures – the club or the manager?
By the way, that cup final win also netted The Arsenal £3,397,500 in prize money, plus of course, the extra gate receipts and the extra television money…leading to larger sponsorship deals…times seven of course ( inflation considered)!!!
On top of that, add the prize money paid for his twenty years of top four finishes, his three PL titles, his CL knockout stage money, the europa money at the latter part of his career and his profits in the transfer market, we are talking, as a roughly conservative estimate, well over a billion pounds…oh and don’t forget the increased revenue from The Emirates stadium.
Ever wondered why kronkie brought the club and was so keen to keep AW?
So Phil, when you look at what Arsene brought into the club financially, over his twenty two years, his salary was chicken feed and he was paid for the results he achieved.
A 58% win figure, a 21% draw figure and a 21% lost figure over the 1235 games under his control, averaging less than a goal scored against and nearly two goals for per game.
If you want to further discuss his financial input versus his salary, I will be quite happy to drill down further for you and include the shirt sponsorship deal for example.
Where all that money has gone, could be a good article for you to look at Phil?
Blimey
You mentioned in another post that you now live in Bonnie Scotland (a beautiful place by the way especially the Caledonian canal). Getting to the Emirates must be a challenge or is that one of your calming Arsenal rituals?
Hiding behind the sofa usually revolved around the Daleks or the equally scary cyber men on Saturdays and only on black and white tv. Makes me shudder even now
SueP, listening to The Eagles, Steely Dan, Buddy Holly, Fleetwood Mac, The Stones, The Beatles, Blues Music, Heavy Rock, or even a good old story passes the time away, until I pick up my daughter and grandson on the way to the game.
Not much fun on the way back if we lose though – keep listening to the sports news and hoping that the score has been reversed.
See what I mean about obsessive behaviour?
Arsene is definitely going to go down in Arsenal History as the finest manager we’ve ever had, he arrived over here and totally revolutionised the way we were playing, okay we never won a trophy 🏆 because all the big money men were taking over clubs like at Chelsea & Man City & they could go out and get what managers they want and all the top players, when we were having to sell off our best players to help repay the money we had spent on the Emirates, but cutting along story short Arsene Wenger has to be given a bronze statue in recognition of what he has done for the club, he is a Legend.
Well as I’ve always said- it gives the pigeons something to aim at