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Tag: Arsene Wenger

  • What Arsene Wenger said about Super League failure

    What Arsene Wenger said about Super League failure

    Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is ‘not surprised’ to see the European Super League collapse just 48 hours into its existence.

    Arsenal are one of six English clubs to have initially signed up to the project, which has been met by intense criticism from everyone involved in football.

    But on Tuesday night, all the six Premier League clubs formally withdrew from the proposed competition.

    According to Wenger, the plan was doomed from the start.

    “I’m not surprised it didn’t last long,” Wenger told beIN Sports.

    “I never believed from the start it would happen.

    “It ignored the basic principles of sporting merit. If you ignore that you kill the domestic leagues, fans would never accept that. Rightly so.”

  • Arsene Wenger backs Tuchel hooking Hudson-Odoi

    Arsene Wenger backs Tuchel hooking Hudson-Odoi

    Former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger supports Thomas Tuchel hooking Callum Hudson-Odoi during Chelsea’s 1-1 draw at Southampton.

    The Chelsea boss replaced Hudson-Odoi with Hakim Ziyech in the 76th minute of Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Southampton, with the England under-21 star having only come on at half-time for Tammy Abraham.

    Wenger had sympathy for Hudson-Odoi – but backed Tuchel in the decision, admitting he had done the same in his managerial career and that the youngster was “not in the game.”

    He told BeIN Sport: “I’ve done it once in my life really because I was scared to lose the game because the guy was completely lost.

    “Basically he [Hudson-Odoi] played in a Christmas tree, in that position behind the central striker which became Werner in the second half and he [Hudson-Odoi] never found the right position in there.

    “I see him more in a wide position and he was not in the game. Was he the guy especially to take off? He didn’t do a lot of positives and not a lot of negatives as well.”

  • Arsenal chief visits Arsene Wenger for possible return

    Arsenal chief visits Arsene Wenger for possible return

    Arsenal have made contact with former manager Arsene Wenger.

    The Daily Mail says the Frenchman is understood to be hurt by the manner in which his reign ended and reverses particular frustration for the club’s board.

    They are however hopeful that he will return to north London despite those close to him insisting he wouldn’t go back, even to watch a game.

    But one of the club’s leading lights, chief executive Vinai Venkatesham, visited Wenger recently to maintain that he is always welcome.

    Next year there are expectations that a significant tribute to the 71-year-old will be unveiled.

    But insiders have revealed that there is still a bitterness between the Frenchman and his former club.

    An Arsenal employee said: “He’ll never go back. That’s how badly let down he feels he was by the board.”

  • Ex-Arsenal boss, Wenger reveals biggest regret of his career

    Ex-Arsenal boss, Wenger reveals biggest regret of his career

    Legendary Arsenal boss, Arsene Wenger, has admitted his biggest regret is failing to win the UEFA Champions League.

    The Frenchman in a wide-ranging interview with talkSPORT reflected on his incredible career, the highlights of his time at Arsenal, which spanned 22 years, and yielded three top-flight titles, seven FA Cups and the only undefeated season in Premier League history.

    The 70-year-old claimed he would swap the ‘Invincible’ Premier Leagues season for the biggest club football prize.

    The Gunners made history in the 2003/2004 campaign, when they won the title without losing a single match.

    However, during his 22-year stay at Arsenal, the Champions League eluded Wenger.

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    Wenger came closest in 2006, when he lost 2-1 to Barcelona, after taking the lead with ten men.

    “Yes, but what I mean is – in 2006, we got to the Champions League final and eliminated a big Real Madrid team, a Juventus team without conceding a goal.

    “And in the final, we were down to ten men after a few minutes. My biggest regret is that, to win the Champions League in 2006, would have crowned that period and that generation and it is what they deserved.

    “But it wasn’t to be and you have to live with that,” he told talkSPORT.

  • Arsene Wenger offers to take charge of Netherlands

    Arsene Wenger offers to take charge of Netherlands

    Former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has offered to take charge of Netherlands national team.

    Fox Sports reports Wenger has offered to succeed Barcelona-bound Ronald Koeman as Netherlands boss.

    Koeman has overtaken Xavi and Mauricio Pochettino as favourite to replace sacked Barca chief Quique Setien.

    Wenger admits he still craves another hands-on role, having departed Arsenal in 2018 after a legendary reign of 22 years.

    He recently said: “Every day I want to train, I’ve been doing this all my life.

    “I’m 70 years old, I gave a lot. Should I play Russian roulette a bit, even when it comes to my health?

    “I can’t do things by halves, so I ask myself this question.”

  • Szczesny reveals truth behind his fall at Arsenal

    Szczesny reveals truth behind his fall at Arsenal

    Wojciech Szczesny has revealed the truth behind the time he was caught smoking after what proved to be the final Premier League appearance of his Arsenal career.

    Szczesny lit up in the showers after a 2-0 defeat at Southampton on New Year’s Day and he was subsequently fined and dropped by then-manager Arsene Wenger as a result.

    The Poland international insists there was no major row with Wenger about the incident, but Szczesny’s only further appearances that season came in the FA Cup.

    The 30-year-old then spent two years on loan at Roma before joining Juventus in a permanent deal in the summer of 2017, and Szczesny has detailed the incident which led to him going from Arsenal’s first-choice keeper to eventually leaving Emirates Stadium.

    “Back at that time I was smoking regularly and the boss knew it very well,” Szczesny told the Arsenal Nation podcast. “He just didn’t want anybody smoking in the dressing rooms and I knew that also.

    “Because of the emotion of the game, I had a cigarette after the game when the team was still in. I went in the corner of the showers, so it was at the other end of the dressing room and nobody could see me, and I lit one up.

    “Somebody saw me, it wasn’t even the boss himself, and just reported it back to the boss. I saw him a couple of days later, he asked me if that was true and I said, ‘yes’. He fined me and that was the end of it.

    Goal

  • FIFA president Infantino backs Wenger offside proposal

    FIFA president Infantino backs Wenger offside proposal

    FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, has lent his support to introducing the ‘daylight’ principle to the offside law.

    Video Assistant Referees (VAR) decisions have caused a lot of controversy in the Premier League, with a few goals chalked off because of very fine offside margins.

    FIFA’s chief of global football development, Arsene Wenger, last week that the law should be changed so that a player is onside if any part of their body that can score a goal is behind or level with the relevant defender.

    Infantino has now spoken in favour of Wenger’s proposal.

    “I’m certainly in favour of discussing a new way of looking at the offside rule, to see if it can help, because I think the issue is more an issue of understanding,” he said at the International Football Association Board, the game’s law-making body.

    “Some of (the decisions) are very, very close and it’s difficult for the people who are watching to see whether it’s offside, so we have to look at whether we can make the offside rule clearer by having light in between.”

  • UCL: Wenger calls for away-goal to be scrapped

    UCL: Wenger calls for away-goal to be scrapped

    Former Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, has asked UEFA to scrap the away goals rule in any new Champions League format.

    According to Wenger, the current rule discourages home teams from playing attacking football in the first leg of a Champions League or Europa League tie.

    The Frenchman is currently FIFA’S head of global football development.

    He made this suggestion, while speaking ahead of Chelsea’s 3-0 defeat at home to Bayern Munich on Tuesday.

    “You play at home by thinking every goal you concede, you are half out.

    “Sometimes I feel that this away goal becomes a big handicap when you play your first game at home because you have to attack with keeping a certain security and not giving away too much,” Wenger said on beIN Sports.

    The away goals rule has been used to decide two-legged ties in club competitions.

    The team that scores more goals “away from home” wins, if the total goals scored by each team are otherwise equal.

  • Liverpool will break Arsenal’s unbeaten record – Wenger

    Liverpool will break Arsenal’s unbeaten record – Wenger

    Arsene Wenger had admitted that Liverpool will surpass the record run of unbeaten games in the Premier League, set by his Arsenal team.

    The Reds are currently 22 points clear at the top of the table ahead of champions Manchester City.

    Jurgen Klopp’s side have won 25 and drawn one of their games so far, extending their unbeaten run to 43 matches.

    Arsenal’s record set in 2003/2004 stands at 49 games.

    “They are doing exceptionally well,’ Wenger told Sporf about Liverpool.

    “They put a team together that is very efficient, very consistent and has good fighting qualities as well, so let’s see.

    “The records are there to be beaten and they can do it.”

  • Wenger wants offside law changed to reduce VAR criticism

    Wenger wants offside law changed to reduce VAR criticism

    FIFA’s head of global development Arsene Wenger says he will attempt to make a major change to the offside law.

    He disclosed that it would be a change which could end a run of contentious decisions in the game since the introduction of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR).

    Wenger wants a player to be deemed onside if any part of their body which can legitimately score a goal is level or behind the last defender.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Frenchman was manager of English Premier League club Arsenal for 22 years.

    This will flip the current rule which states the player is in an offside position if any part of their body they can score with is beyond the line of the last defender.

    Usage of video review has been a source of constant criticism since its recent introduction, including concern about the time to take decisions and the precision with which offsides are judged.

    The system sparked another controversy last week in the Premier League when Wolverhampton Wanderers had a goal ruled out against Leicester City.

    That was after Pedro Neto’s heel was adjudged to be fractionally offside in the build-up.

    Wenger will recommend the change during the world football lawmaking body IFAB’s annual general meeting in Belfast on Feb. 29.

    “You will be not offside if any part of the body that can score a goal is in line with the last defender, even if other parts of the attacker’s body are in front,” Wenger told the British media.

    “That will sort it out and you will no longer have decisions about millimetres and a fraction of the attacker being in front of the defensive line.”

    Each of the four Home Nations —- England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland —- has one of the eight votes, with FIFA holding the other four.

    NAN reports that any law change needs six votes in favour to go through.

    If Wenger gets his three-quarter majority, the new law could come into effect on June 1 —- 12 days before the start of the European Championship.