Arsene Wenger Q&A: Arsenal, VAR, Mesut Ozil, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and more

Arsene Wenger is widely credited with helping to revolutionize English football.

Since leaving Emirates Stadium, the Frenchman has taken on a role in soccer’s world governing body, FIFA, overseeing the global development of the game.

Here, the 70-year-old talks to BBC Sport about the past, present and future.

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What does Arsenal mean to you?

The love of my life. I gave 22 years of my life to the club. I built the training center and I built the Emirates Stadium. I worked hard to get the money back from the stadium and to create an environment and infrastructure that allows this club to do well and invest in the future. I think we are on the right track.

I’m a bit like a guy who ended a relationship and no longer has contact with his children, but still loves them.

In hindsight, was it a mistake to sign the Emirates Stadium loan agreement?

I accepted it because I thought it was a challenge. The first 10 years we were racing to win the championship, but I knew the next 10 years would be more difficult. I think we played excellent football, sometimes we were in a position to win the league, but we were much younger. [as a squad] in general.

I may be even more proud of the second part of my career than the first because the first was easy. The second was more difficult and they really tested my resilience. I am very proud to have served the club during such a delicate period.

He hasn’t been back to the stadium since he lost his job in May 2018 …

I have chosen to keep a full distance. It does not mean emotionally, just physically. It is important that people do not see you as a shadow. It may seem like you’re still trying to sway things and get your way. I felt like the best thing to do was cut it off.

Towards the end of his stay at the Arsenal there were protests and demonstrations. Did they hurt?

I don’t think you should really value what a fan says in the moment: a fan says something based on the moment, based on emotions. Today it seems that the minority has a great dictatorship. They dictate what you talk about, so if there are 50 people on social media who are negative, you can somehow get more attention than 60,000 people in a stadium.

It does not mean that everyone has to do what they say. If you look at our last three years, you will see that in 2016 we finished second; okay, he was behind Leicester City, but all the other clubs finished behind Leicester as well and lost only three games. In 2017 it was the first time we weren’t in the Champions League since 1997.

So yeah, I wish we had kept that record, but I think this year we have a good chance to get back in the top four.

You had a fierce rivalry with Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and José Mourinho at Chelsea, is this still the case? You’re in touch

I rarely keep in touch because I’m not in the country much. I respect them. When you’re in competition it’s either you or them, so it’s always a bit aggressive. But later, when you meet people outside of the competition, you don’t.

You both suffer, you both have difficulties with the team, but you have to defend your club when you’re there at all costs and that’s why sometimes it gets a little out of control. In general, there is a respect for always talking about things.

As Arsenal manager, he turned down two offers from Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Paris St-Germain, France, England and Manchester United. Which of them was closest to accepting?

Real Madrid certainly, because you don’t know many people who turned them down twice. And it was staying with a team that does not have the resources to win the championship. But I thought to myself that if I was going to accept the challenge of managing Arsenal, I would go to the end.

You have different types of managers. I was the longest-serving coach at Monaco and the longest-serving coach at Arsenal, so that’s part of my personality.

Who were the toughest team or players you faced?

Team: Wimbledon when I first came to England. Players: Roy Keane and Alf-Inge Haaland; it was always difficult to play against them.

With such a brilliant career there cannot be many regrets, but Arsenal have always been linked to big names. Do you ever sit back and ask yourself, ‘What if?’

Of course I think that if, for example, Cristiano Ronaldo played with Thierry Henry, [Robert] Saucer, [Sylvain] Wiltord and [Dennis Bergkamp]. Maybe we score 200 goals in one season!

Sometimes you regret it, you think it’s your fault that you didn’t decide fast enough or sometimes financially you couldn’t come to an agreement fast enough, but generally I have to say that you go to Chelsea, you go to Manchester United, you go to Liverpool. … all the clubs are full of stories like this.

Wish I had signed Zlatan Ibrahimovic instead of inviting him to trial?

Not really, because he was a 17-year-old boy who played in Malmo in the second Swedish league. And nobody knew him. We tested many players at 17 years old; it was absolutely normal before making a decision.

What do you want your legacy to be?

Someone who served his club with full commitment, integrity and honesty and who loved the club. I gave Arsenal the best years of my life. In different circumstances, but I always felt the same passion.

The present

Is it true that you still wake up and follow the same routine as when you worked out, including two hours in the gym every day?

That’s true, even on the weekends. Sport is like brushing your teeth: if you do it once a week it is not very effective, but if you do it every day it is more effective.

How much football do you watch now?

All I see is football. In the morning I watch the games that were last night. It’s my passion. When you are born, your first instinct is to survive. Then you must find the meaning of your life. My life is football.

I grew up in a small pub where the local soccer team was based. From the age of four or five I heard people talk only about football, so it was certainly the only important thing in life in my mind.

Are Arsenal in good hands with current coach Mikel Arteta?

Yes. He has the ingredients to be a very good coach, a superior coach, but many of my former players had them. We have to give them time, let them do their job the way they want.

He is intelligent, has a great passion and a strong character. And I think he’s surrounding himself with the right people.

He signed Mesut Ozil for a club record fee of £ 42.4 million. What do you think of your career today?

I feel like it’s a waste to him.

In the first place, because it is in the years when a player of his talent can produce more. And it is a waste for the club also because he is a super talent, a creative talent that in the last third can create that killer pass.

The way football is going right now is fast counterattack, quick transitions and everyone plays the same. He has sent off players like Ozil. Although let’s not forget who this guy is. A world champion who has played for Real Madrid.

It’s been the assist turntable, so you have to find a way to get it involved again.

You are a huge supporter of VAR, but can you understand the frustration others feel with it?

First, let’s ask ourselves: is VAR effective? When you look at the statistics, the reviews show that they have gone from 84% of the correct decisions to 95%. It is a system above our opinions.

The second is that it fights corruption because one man cannot influence a decision. For me this is something important because it was not always like that. Yes, it can be slow at times, but I think if we suppressed it, people would want it back.

Last year, people did not accept the offside rule. This year nobody talks about it. It has nothing to do with money, you just want the right decisions.

Are punishments for incidents of racism enough?

We cannot tolerate racism and I believe that sport, and especially football, has a great responsibility: to show how we can live together, to share what we love.

I think we cannot tolerate racism in the stands. We have to punish him. How to punish him? We haven’t found the correct answer yet. I think having cameras to recognize people who are doing it and banning them for life.

The future

Your job now is to develop the game. You want to get rid of the throw-ins …

When you serve, it is supposed to be an advantage for the team in possession. But in reality you are at a disadvantage with nine players on the field to 10 of your opponents. Also, you have to use your hands to play the ball. I’d say you have a better chance of losing the ball.

So I think we always have to think about how we can make the game faster and more spectacular. So why not being able to kick the ball when you’re in your own half?

We always have to try to think about how we can make the game faster and more interesting, and most of the rules that have been created have led to a more spectacular game. I also think that you should be able to take a free kick (multiple hits) by yourself when you get knocked down.

You want to really focus on equal access to facilities for young children around the world and growing the female game …

I want to give everyone the same opportunities. In Europe, we are in a bubble. There are countries where children cannot access coaches and the infrastructure does not exist. I want to create an online program that everyone can access. It will detail what the child should learn, at what age, how often he trains, when to increase the difficulty of the exercise.

As for women’s football, attendance at the World Cup is always high but outside the World Cup very minimal. It is not enough to invest a lot of money, pay good salaries so that girls dedicate their lives to being footballers. That is why it is necessary to develop the quality of the game.

We also need to develop the infrastructure because at the moment the men’s fields are fully reserved during the weekends, so if women’s football develops and grows as much as we want, we will have to build new fields.

Arsene Wenger was speaking with BBC Sport about the launch of his autobiography My Life in Red and White.