“He Will Stay, Arsenal Need Him And He Needs Arsenal”

Arsene Wenger has been with Arsenal for 15 years, managed over 850 games, and won close to 500 of them. He is currently the clubs longest serving manager, and, based on the three Premier League trophies and four FA Cups, the most successful one too.

However, as of late, he and his club have been experiencing something of a crisis; a summer in which their best players left, a disastrous start to the season, and the overbearing burden of the unfortunate but all to obvious fact that Arsenal are without a trophy in six years.

The ‘crisis’ now seems to be over, with the side unbeaten in their last nine matches in all competitions, and a striker in superb goalscoring form, and despite rumblings over the future of Arsene Wenger because of the aforementioned troubles, former Gunner Robert Pires believes the manager will be at the London club for life.

The retired French midfielder, who played under Wenger through their greatest ever season in which the side remained unbeaten to win the League of 2003/04, suggested he could hardly envisage Arsenal without Wenger and spoke of the so called crisis which rocked the Emirates early in their season:

“I think he will die with Arsenal. He is the same as Ferguson at Manchester United or Guy Roux at Auxerre. He will stay with Arsenal, that is my opinion, because Arsenal need him and he needs Arsenal. C’est l’amour.” 

“It has calmed down now and things are more relaxed for Arsène. In August he lost three important players for the club in Nasri, Clichy and Fabregas and I think that was a shock for Wenger. And for the fans too, of course.”

“Every club in England has a period of crisis. At the beginning it was Arsenal and now it is Chelsea. I remember the day after Man Utd had lost 6-1 to City when everyone was saying United were finished. That is football, especially when you play for the big teams.”

Pires joined Spanish side Villarreal after leaving Arsenal in 2006, and recently returned to the Premier League with Aston Villa, but throughout his time away from the club where he played 284 times and scored 84 goals, he has remained in contact with his former manager, and remains close.

Pires’ comments will therefore give hope to those Wenger fans worried by his recent ambiguous comments about his future when he said:

 “We’ll look at things at the end of this one [this season]. For me we’re now talking short-term, it’s obvious.”