Arsene Wenger has admitted being a manager is "a drug" and one that the Arsenal boss still cannot do without after setting a new record for Premier League matches overseen from the dugout.
Wenger moved past Sir Alex Ferguson when he took charge of his 811th top-flight game with Sunday's 1-1 draw with West Bromwich Albion.
With 18 months left on his current deal at the Emirates Stadium, the Frenchman is likely to considerably add to that mark, and as he heads into his 22nd year at the club, his motivation and passion for his job remains undimmed.
"It's a drug that gives you highs and -- naturally -- brings you back down again, but you want to come back into it all the same," he told SFR Sport. "Even if the pressure weighs heavily on you sometimes... the worst pressure is not to have any at all. Life can seem very empty. I have a load of friends who say, 'I'm stopping, I'm stopping, I'm stopping,' but they all come back.
"Even those who said, 'Believe me, I won't come back' like Capello and Lippi, they have all gone off to China to coach again despite having been comfortable on their yachts by the sea. It's a real addiction, a real drug, you can't do without it.
"There's something magic in our job, which is to bring together energies for a common cause. It's a sharing of emotions, and takes you to places that practically nothing else in life can, even if at times it can also seem extremely discouraging, that sometimes you feel you're climbing Mont Blanc and that you'll never get to the top it's that difficult. But there are those magical moments that bring you back."
Wenger came under fire last season from a vocal section of Arsenal fans disappointed with the club's relative lack of success in recent years, but rode out calls for his resignation to sign a new contract last summer.
He acknowledged moving past Ferguson had provoked mixed emotions, saying: "It's a lot of effort, a lot of personal commitment, a lot of sacrifices in life too. And it's a succession of emotions that accumulate inside you. Some of them very negative, some of them with a lot of suffering, some of them extremely exciting. A match can seem an eternity, you feel a bit like Methuselah. A match can also be a succession of intense pleasures, so it's all mixed up deep inside me."