Wenger admits he’s ‘scared’ of retirement
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has admitted that he is “scared of the day” he is eventually forced to retire from football.
|||Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has admitted that he is “scared of the day” he is eventually forced to retire from football.
With only one year left on his contract at the Emirates, Wenger is now approaching a crossroads in his career and there is a growing sense among many that this season may be his last at Arsenal.
The Frenchman is one of the longest serving managers in the history of English football and is set to celebrate 20 years at the club having joined the Gunners in 1996.
But it seems the 66-year-old is still in two minds about retirement as his contract nears its end.
With Arsenal two matches into the Premier League season, Wenger has admitted he cannot imagine walking away from the beautiful game.
“Football has been my life, and honestly, I'm quite scared of the day. Because the longer I wait, the more difficult it will be to lose the addiction,” he said in an interview in Game Changers: Inside English Football.
“After Sir Alex Ferguson retired and we played Manchester United over there he sent a message to me to come up and have a drink with him.
“I asked: 'Did you miss it?' and he said: 'Not at all.' I didn't understand that. It's an emptiness in your life, especially when you've lived your whole life waiting for the next game and trying to win it.
“Our pleasure comes from that -and our social attitude as well.” Whether or not Wenger walks away from the game of his own accord, the Frenchman has come under considerable pressure to do so in recent seasons for a perceived lack of investment in the transfer market.
His parsimonious spending policy has frustrated fans who have been forced to sit back and watch Arsenal flounder in recent transfer windows while rival clubs invest big money in players from the continent.
The club have made just one high-profile signing this summer so far - Granit Xhaka from Borussia Monchengladbach - and have struggled to land a number of their targets.
Banners calling for Wenger's resignation were unveiled at numerous matches last season while fans booed the side at the final whistle following Arsenal's 4-3 opening defeat to Liverpool two weeks ago.
It's an emptiness in your life, especially when you've lived your whole life waiting for the next game and trying to win it. Our pleasure comes from that -and our social attitude as well. – The Independent