IRKED that his future is again under scrutiny, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger reminded his critics he “turned the whole world down” to stay at the club and refused to comment on an end-of-season review regarding his position.
Arsenal’s last chance of winning domestic silverware this season disappeared on Sunday with a 3-0 loss to Manchester City in the English League Cup final.
The team is in sixth place in Premier League, 27 points behind City ahead of its match against the leaders on Thursday.
Arsenal remains involved in the Europa League but faces a tough match against Italian side AC Milan.
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With Arsenal slipping behind English football’s elite, the 68-year-old Wenger’s future is back to being the subject of much debate as he approaches the end of 22nd season in charge.
He has a contract until the summer of 2019.
“I am here for 21 years,” said Wenger, easily the longest-serving manager in England.
“I turned the whole world down to respect my contracts. So I am still amazed that I still have to answer these types of questions.”
Wenger’s job under ‘review’
0:44
Asked about the end-of-season review, Wenger said: “Honestly, that’s the last worry I have at the moment.”
A loss to City would leave Arsenal 10 points behind fourth-place Tottenham with 10 games left in the race to qualify for the Champions League.
After stinging criticism from Gary Neville in commentary for Sky Sports, Wenger replied:
“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. Does it stop you to sleep that my position is uncertain or would not be certain or is certain? No. What is interesting in football is the performances of football, the game you will see on Thursday night. That is what is important. All the rest may make headlines but it is not really interesting.”
Young fan brought to tears
0:26
On the remark that his players were “spineless” and were walking around the Wembley turf, Wenger replied: “You could find that [walking] on both sides.
“You can always get out pictures from a game that justifies what you think. You find in every single game, on both sides, moments where a player doesn’t track. You have to analyse why. Has he made two runs before to go in behind and was exhausted, or did he not track because he didn’t want to? That is different.
Arsenal outgunned by City
1:53
“Of course, the players gave me everything. I am long enough in the game to know that when you lose a big game, people always say that the players don’t want it enough. Did we lose the game because of that? I am not convinced. When there is a big difference like 3-0 you always get that impression. For me, it is not the main reason.
“We got to the final and you don’t get there by coincidence. You have to fight to get there and we did. We didn’t play against a poor team in the semi-final, we played against Chelsea and we have shown that we can fight. We have to live with the criticism, it’s part of the modern game. People who comment – their job is to comment, so you have to live with that. What is important is how we respond.”
