ARSENE WENGER says nobody cares about his achievements at Arsenal any more in this age of instant gratification.
The Frenchman reckons he feels the same way as Europe did when Britain voted for Brexit. Fans are not happy that the Gunners are off the Premier League pace yet again in a season lacking Champions League action.
Shareholders turned against majority owner Stan Kroenke, chairman Sir Chips Keswick and chief executive Ivan Gazidis in a stormy AGM on Thursday.
Gazidis claimed the Emirates outfit, who host Swansea today, were actually great OVER-ACHIEVERS because rivals had splashed out far more cash.
But that did not wash with the shareholders, despite a passionate plea to see beyond the here and now from their most successful manager. Wenger, who was handed a new two-year, £16million deal in the summer against the wishes of a huge number of fans, insists on entertaining football rather than parking the bus and gives youngsters a chance, even though it increases the chances of losing.
He said: “I know nobody cares any more. Somebody said 500 years ago the target was to be a saint for people.
“Fifty years ago a hero in war. Today a billionaire or, even more, a celebrity.
“That is instant and here now. But it has to be sustained by something. I think the club is first about values and in the modern game we lose a little bit of the perspective of what is important and what is not. “It is always here and now and forever and the now is permanent, the judgment is permanent and forever.
“You have the same example with Brexit — it’s just here now but where do we go from there?”
Brexiteer Michael Gove declared Britain had “had enough of experts” who warned leaving the EU would be a disaster. And there is no one who comes across as more of a football expert than ‘Le Professeur’, who revolutionised the English game 20 years ago.
Wenger, 68, added: “What I liked when I came to England was the weight of the past was there and you could feel it was important. “In the evolution of the modern society the weight of the present has become predominant to the past and the future.
“Everybody is in a struggle to survive here and now.”
Wenger will be nearly 70 by the time his current contract ends and admitted he had no idea what made him carry on at an age when others are putting their feet up.
He said: “There are two ways: you ignore your age and you live like you live forever, or you think ‘OK, I think I am born for competition’.
“My real need is the desire to compete. It has never been financial. If it was, I would not be here.”
From The Sun
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