Wenger just can't give it up

Wenger has just celebrated 13 years in the Arsenal hot-seat and can closely identify with his greatest managerial rival – Manchester United chief Sir Alex Ferguson, who suggested stepping down at 60 but is still going strong as he approaches his 68th birthday.

Wenger, who revealed he received his early management skills growing up in a pub as a four-year-old, said: “I can understand that [Ferguson’s decision to change his mind]. I said I would stop at 50.

“I don’t believe in retiring unless you have to. I never have days where I think I can live without football, never.

“I know one day it will happen. I will change my job or do something different and that it can finish.

“But I believe you don’t live every day knowing that you will die – you live every day by knowing you want to live.

“It is our life but it can stop any day. It might stop, you are not the only one who can decide that, your board or chairman can decide that – it’s over. It’s a competitive world.”

Wenger, who has transformed his club and English football in the process, said you have to be like an “animal” to cope with the pressures of management.

Wenger, who is in tip-top shape and trains every day, said: “In our job you need physical strength and to be a bit of an animal to convince people it’s important to win.

SDLqBut once that strength goes from your body you have a handicap, although you can compensate with experience.

“You will know if you are not hungry enough any more. When you are not good enough any more, that’s very difficult for you to say.

“Other people will tell you if you are not good enough any more.”

Wenger was speaking at the League Managers Association annual conference, ‘Touchline to Boardroom’, held at his club ground, the Emirates Stadium.

Wenger, brought up in a pub in a French village, said: “There is no better psychological education than growing up in a pub.

“That’s because you meet all different people and hear how cruel they can be talking to each other, saying things like ‘you’re a liar’.

“From an early age you get a practical, psychological education to get into the minds of people.

“I grew up with football and learned about tactics and selection from the people talking about it in the pub – who plays on the left wing and who should be in the team, this player is or isn’t good.”

It was the unusual pathway to an outstanding managerial career and Wenger said the older he gets the worse it is in some ways to deal with the pain of losing.

He said: “The key as a manager is to survive disappointment. How does a manager feel when he has lost a game? It is a disastrous feeling. To survive that and act like nothing has happened you need a special motivation and our job is to survive disappointment.

“I started early at 33 with a big responsibility at a top-level team as a manager and sometimes I felt I wouldn’t survive in this job, because physically I was sick.

“At a big club like Arsenal you lose nought to 5, 6 or 7 games, nought is the exception.

“At a small club you lose between 10 and 15 games and you are really tested with your resolve to bounce back and that’s difficult.

“You have to do it because you don’t accept losing. You want to win.”