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Excellent interview in l'Equipe with Arsene Wenger, ahead of the release of his autobiography next week. I'll try to pick out some highlights, esp re Arsenal...
Asked about leaving his Alsace home early: I was curious. At 25 I went with a friend to Hungary to see how the Communist system worked and came back thinking that it would collapse. I wanted to discover the world...
I still ask myself, as we confront cultural differences that are difficult for some: in a football team, racism and cultural differences are never a problem. But in real life, cultural differences will be harder to combat than racism.
"I don't think I had anything special but was lucky to meet people who put their faith in me at different stages of my life. But I also had passion, still now. Getting up on a day where there is a big match to watch that evening - it's not the same kind of day for me."
Asked why he's no longer a club coach: I did my job in a way that no longer exists today. I wouldn't have been able to go elsewhere in England so I refused. And at 70 I didn't want to take on that one job too far.
"You need physical strength to do this job. And after 36 years without a break I needed to stop and think. And of course my unique link with Arsenal made the idea of going to another club far more difficult."
"Today I wonder if I was wrong to turn down the Lyon job in May 2019. But I wasn't ready. It seemed to early. I hadn't yet totally mourned [the end of my Arsenal role]."
Asked if he's enjoying his freedom: What is good is not being pressed for time. What is bad is no longer having clear objectives. What is really bad is having to cut the cords with the club where I built every stone...
...You get up in the morning and want to go to the training ground but you can't, it's over. And yet you bought the ground, you picked every spoon, every fork. It's tough.
On his last day at Arsenal:
I prepared myself to block everything emotionally. All over after 20 years... Everything I'd learned as a coach helped me survive that moment, controlling my emotions. When I started this job I suffered physically and thought I'd never survive...
I prepared myself to block everything emotionally. All over after 20 years... Everything I'd learned as a coach helped me survive that moment, controlling my emotions. When I started this job I suffered physically and thought I'd never survive...
...to make it, I had to learn to control myself. So on the day of my departure I had to prove it. No cracking. It was afterwards that it was hard. Arsenal was my home. And no longer going home, from one day to the next, was hard...
...I went, by myself, to pick up all my stuff the week before our last match, away. Since then, I've never been back to the Emirates of Colney. It's a real break, sentimentally speaking.
Asked if he can get over it: Time is a healer but my love for the club hasn't disappeared. My old Strasbourg coach told me it takes 2yrs to get over ending your coaching career. That sounds right. I'm trying to live with the hole, rather than wait for it to disappear.
When I'm contacted, though, I find it hard to say no and to totally leave that world behind. I need to feel like it's still possible. I can't yet say: it's over. But at the same time, the further away it is, the harder to come back.
Asked how he'd come back to Arsenal:
To go and watch a match in peace. I've often been asked to return. But the club is reorganising with my ex-players taking control. It will happen naturally and we'll see how it goes but for now I'm not ready to return.
To go and watch a match in peace. I've often been asked to return. But the club is reorganising with my ex-players taking control. It will happen naturally and we'll see how it goes but for now I'm not ready to return.
"I'm still invested in football, but no longer in the result. If I returned to coaching it would be as a national coach. I've done my time in club football and I'm one for long-term projects and that would be harder now. The next 22 years are going to be harder for me!
On how he takes defeats (with Arsenal): It's tough when you can no longer progress the team in Europe. But I'm still annoyed about the draws we had - Barca, Barca, Barca, Bayern, Bayern. The one time we didn't have them we had Monaco and got done over like idiots...
...Luck of the draw is important. We saw that this year in the Champions League with PSG. They can have regrets, but their semi-final win over Leipzig has been over-inflated.
On defeats: Every defeat is a scar on my heart. We're all somewhere between love of victory and hate of defeat. But I really hated losing. I can tell you how each one happened, someone didn't put their boot in, someone badly placed on a cross, the keeper should have had it...
...It was a dominant trait through my career - the pain of defeat. It's another reason why I didn't go to another job. I'm sure it has an effect on your health. After conceding a goal, sometimes it was like I could feel my arteries blocking up...
...I finished with 58% win rate and around 20% each draws and defeats. Losing one match in every five is tough. But my thoughts are with the guy who only wins one in every five!
Asked how many of his 36yrs coaching he was happy: Overall I loved doing the job. But moments of intense joy - 2-3%. If happiness is loving the life you lead, I was happy. But moments of joy is something else...
...Some days I'd be in training and the team would be playing at an unbelievable level and I'd think that I would pay to watch this. Now I know what life is like outside football, if I had my time again, I'd still coach, still do the same for 40 years.
Asked about line in book "I'm convinced that there are only incomplete lives": There are loads of things I didn't win enough or at all. But also lots that I've neglected, especially my family. All lives are incomplete by definition - you can't achieve everything.
Asked if he regrets saying no to Real, Bayern, PSG, France job: Yes. They're big clubs. Juventus really wanted me too. It's a regret but also a source of pride to have served my club to the very end, to the end of the project. That's more important than all the titles for me...
...I'm also Monaco's longest serving coach at 7yrs. I guess I'm about loyalty. I also have an intrinsic motivation. I want to improve myself and people like me want to do things our way. I'm not sure I'd have been able to do the job in the same way at Real Madrid.
Asked if it was hard to write the book: Yes, very. I didn't like it. I'm from a generation that doesn't talk about itself. It was a bit torturous. I was never very outspoken in the press or that present in the media, outside of my job. It was hard...
...but writing this book was also a way for me to say: my job as a club coach is over. That's why I refused until now. Getting older doesn't mean becoming a wimp!
