Arsenal

Arsene Wenger: 'My preference is to manage Arsenal'

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 18 February 2017

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger says that his preference is to "always" manage the club and suggests that he could continue for at least four more years.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has hinted that he could stay at the club for at least four more years amid growing speculation over his future.

The Frenchman has been in charge of the Gunners since 1996, but calls for him to step down have grown in recent years and Wednesday's 5-1 defeat at Bayern Munich brought even more scrutiny over whether he will continue beyond the end of his current contract, which expires this summer.

Wenger has already said that he will not retire from management even if he leaves the Emirates at the end of the season, and the 67-year-old has now used Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement age of 71 as an example of how much longer he can go on for.

"Ferguson has some other interests in life and he was older than I am today. He was four years older, he retired at 71 and I'm 67. Maybe [I'll have] more, maybe less, I don't know," he told reporters.

"Everybody is different on that front and I do not want to take anything away from Ferguson, he was an absolutely unbelievable manager but he had enough, he had enough, and I'm not at that stage. [The suggestion of moving elsewhere] is not a threat, not at all.

"My preference is always to manage Arsenal and I have shown that. I am adult enough to analyse the situation. I do not want to talk anymore about my personal situation. What is important is the next game. We had a big disappointment, we lost, and we want to win the next game."

The Arsenal board are understood to have tabled an offer of two more years at the club, but both parties are expected to come to a mutual agreement over his future at the end of the campaign.