Arsene Wenger: Arsenal's values persuaded me to turn down chance to manage Manchester United

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Arsene Wenger has revealed it was the ‘values’ at Arsenal that persuaded him to turn down Manchester United when they asked him to replace Alex Ferguson as manager at Old Trafford.

Former United chairman Martin Edwards said in his newly released autobiography that he and then-chief executive Peter Kenyon met Wenger twice, once at the Frenchman’s house, to discuss replacing Ferguson after the latter announced he would retire in 2002. Wenger, at the time, was on course to lead Arsenal to their second Premier League-and-FA Cup double in five years.

“He was my number one choice,” wrote Edwards, adding, “Wenger did show a little bit of interest, enough to want to meet Peter Kenyon and me at his house in London to listen to what we had to say.

“For a while we thought there was a possibility of him joining us. But he felt he had started something with Arsenal and that his attachment to the club was too great.”

Confirming Edwards’ recollection Wenger said he turned Manchester United down “because I love the values of this club and, for me, a club is about values first. You speak about Man United, the evolution in the last 20 years [there is] very interesting. A lot has changed, but when I came here this club was about values that I love in sport.

“So I always question myself. ‘Yes, of course, Man United is attractive but am I happy here?’ The answer was ‘yes’.” said Wenger. Ferguson subsequently stayed, winning six more Premier League titles and the Champions League, before retiring in 2013. Wenger has remained at Arsenal, but winning, after that 2001-02 season, only one more league title.

He added, in a wry reference to complaints about his continued stewardship: “I was not tempted because I was always happy here, more than people are happy with me.”

Saturday’s 3-0 despatch of Bournemouth meant there was no audible discontent with Wenger, but Alexis Sanchez was a target. This was his first home match since a proposed move to Manchester City collapsed and the Chilean was met with a mix of boos and cheers when appearing as substitute.

Wenger said he had spoken to Sanchez and insisted the striker was concentrating on Arsenal. While not ready physically to play 90 minutes on Saturday after playing twice for Chile Sanchez could start Thursday’s Europa League tie against Cologne. “He is focused, he told me he is focused on the Premier League and Europa League,” said Wenger. He had a bad result with Chile against Bolivia [last week], but he came back full of desire and ready to play.

Petr Cech said he had also spoken to Sanchez and was happy with the response. “He wants to win,” said the goalkeeper.

Some people say: ‘he does this, he does that.’ But I think he’s a guy who plays with all of his passion and all of his heart. You could see that in his performance. He knew he came late back, the manager opted not to risk him, put him on the bench so he was ready to come on. He came on and you could see he put a shift in.”

The game was over long before Sanchez’s arrival after two goals from Danny Welbeck and one from Alexandre Lacazette. Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe admitted he was concerned by their pointless start.

‘I’m worried by the performance. The four performances we’ve had - I won’t accept three of them. That’s a pretty damning verdict. I vow to try and put it right. It’s a ruthless league. We need points. We’re going to have to start very soon.”

“This has been a wake-up call for everyone,” added ‘keeper Asmir Begovic.

“It’s a huge game [against Brighton] on Friday night now, we’ve got to turn it round very quickly.”