Wenger happy to end his career at Arsenal

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said yesterday he would be delighted to end his managerial career at the Premier League club and ensure that happens by signing a new contract at the end of the upcoming season.

The Frenchman – who turns 61 in October – has had offers in the past to try and lure him away from Arsenal but declined them and is nearing 14 years in charge at the London club.

He told reporters that should he sign a new contract it would take him up to 65,” an age where he said he would definitely move to another less pressurised job than club manager.

“I am at the stage where if I extend my contract, it means I will finish my career at club level at Arsenal,” said Wenger, who has failed to deliver silverware to Arsenal since winning the 2005 FA Cup.

“If I go for a different challenge – I have been offered many challenges you know – it has to be now. That’s a decision I have to make. But basically, I have no desire to change from here. I have one more year, and we are maybe thinking about extending it.”

Wenger, who guided Arsenal to three Premier League titles and the domestic double in 1998, said that unless his body told him otherwise he would definitely retire as a manager in 2014.

“I’ve set myself a target until 65 and then I will certainly make a move to some different job, unless I still feel like I feel today,” said Wenger, who desires above anything else to lift the Champions League trophy with Arsenal having lost on their only appearance in a final to Barcelona in 2006.

Wenger believes that the Premier League is the strongest in the world but it risks losing that status as in order to try and help improve the national team’s fortunes they tinker with the rules governing club football such as new squad limits and home-grown quotas.

“England has to make a decision: Is the Premier League here to prepare the English national team to be stronger or is the Premier League here to be the strongest football product in the world? They try at the moment to combine the two, to do both,” he said.