Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger fires shot at critics – and warns them to stop telling him how to run HIS club
PRICKLIER than a hedgehog in a cactus farm, Arsene Wenger was clearly in no mood to chew the fat.
From the opening question of yesterday’s media briefing it was immediately apparent that the Frenchman had the hump - he had earlier told Arsenal fans to follow the example of arch-rivals TOTTENHAM
“Good morning, Arsene, how are you?” he was asked. He hit back: “I’m not very well. Are you surprised?”
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For the previous ten days, the world and his dog have been telling Wenger exactly where he and his ailing team have been going wrong.
Every armchair expert and keyboard warrior has delivered their damning verdicts on the back-to-back Premier League defeats to Watford and Chelsea.
But Europe’s longest-serving current boss — Wenger pitched up at Arsenal over 20 years ago — is turning a deaf ear to outsiders looking to stick their oars into his business.
Wenger, 67, maintains that he has become immune to the avalanche of criticism which threatens to bury everyone at the Emirates on an annual basis.
Yet he still bristled when it was put to him yesterday that he was too soft on his underachieving players.
Wenger fumed: “I’ve been in the job for 34 years at the top level — and we have developed more players at this club than everybody else.
“If you look at the careers of the players when they have left us, you will see we are a club that gets the best out of them.
“I have managed more than 2,000 games and analysed every one of them deeply.
WEN YOUR TIME'S UP
ARSENE WENGER claims Arsenal develop the most players and get the best out of them.
Here we look at six Gunners who left . . . and how they fared.
THREE GOOD
- ASHLEY COLE: Exit angered fans but he won the Prem, Champions League and four FA Cups at Chelsea
- CESC FABREGAS: Left aged 24 and enjoyed success at Barcelona and now Chelsea
- ROBIN VAN PERSIE: Won title with rivals Man Utd in 2013 after joining them the previous summer
THREE BAD
- ALEX SONG: Flopped at Barca and is now in Russia with Rubin Kazan
- ANDREY ARSHAVIN: Every Arsenal fan would agree that, aside from a four-goal display at Anfield, Arshavin was not worth his £15million fee. Back in his native Russia
- EMMANUEL ADEBAYOR: The troublesome Togo striker, now at Istanbul Basaksehir, is not missed by Gooners. Left for Man City and has also played for Real Madrid, Spurs and Crystal Palace
“I watch many games on TV — but I take the comments with a distance and a perspective.
“I know how to separate the emotional from the objective and can understand what makes sense and what does not.
“I am long enough in the job to know that you go from hero to zero in one minute. But I am not affected by that too much, because I am the same person I was last Tuesday.”
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Not since the wheels came off Arsenal’s title challenge last season — following a 2-1 home defeat to Swansea on March 2 — has Wenger been this cantankerous.
He point-blank refused to discuss his Arsenal contract, despite numerous calls for him to come clean on his plans beyond the end of this season.
Dripping with sarcasm, he snapped: “It’s very nice that you take care of how I feel.
“But I answer that question every week and I have nothing to add to what I said last time.”
And he made it abundantly clear he is not going to be hounded out of his job by a single supporter waving a banner declaring, ‘Enough is enough time to go’.
Wenger said dismissively: “We focus on the next game and do not give too much importance to one fan.
“What matters is not the opinions of some people — but the next result and how we can respond to a difficult situation.”
Arsenal’s players held a lengthy team meeting on Tuesday to pick over the bones of last Saturday’s damaging 3-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge.
Even Wenger admitted that the title was now Chelsea’s to lose in the immediate aftermath of the beating. But when it was suggested yesterday that Arsenal have conceded defeat in the title race, Wenger snapped: “Who says it’s over? It’s never over.
“If it’s over for us, it’s over for everybody else. We are in a pack that is very tight, where the fight for every position is massive.
“When you are in a competition, you fight as far as you can. You have to refuse to give up.
“We are in a fight to be in the top four and in a fight to catch Chelsea.”
If only Wenger’s players could muster as much defiance in the face of adversity.
Instead, their season is once again in serious danger of petering out by the middle of February.
Anything less than three points at home to 18th-placed Hull on Saturday will send the Emirates fans into a fit of fury.
And even a comfortable weekend victory will count for nothing if Arsenal suffer a battering in Wednesday’s last-16 first leg Champions League trip to Bayern Munich.
Wenger added: “The best way to deal with Bayern is to get our priorities right by winning on Saturday.
“It has been a difficult week because we are here to win football games — and when we don’t do that we are very disappointed.
“We are at an important and sensitive part of the season. We are facing a big fight in the Premier League, in the Champions League and also in the FA Cup.
“It’s important to get clarity and to rectify what didn’t work.
“A club only works well when everybody does his job.
“The players are responsible for their performances and nothing more.
“The board is responsible for long-term decisions. The manager is responsible for team selection and the results.”
In other words — butt out, the lot of you.