The thought must fill Arsène Wenger with dread. He looks at his old foe Sir Alex Ferguson and it baffles him. Time catches up with everyone in the end. No one escapes and the more the years go by, the more you wonder what the future holds. The time will come when Wenger calls it a day. Then what?
Arsenal’s manager does not want to think about retirement but he is 65. Wenger has two years left on the contract he signed last year and his appetite for his job shows no sign of diminishing. Yet he cannot help but wonder how Ferguson has kept himself sane since retiring two years ago. “Sometimes I think: ‘What does he do all day?’” Wenger said in the buildup to his side’s latest visit to Manchester United.
It is a line that offered a brief insight into his character. Wenger is a football obsessive and he can barely imagine what his life will be like when he no longer rules the Arsenal dugout, fiddling with that pesky zip on that huge coat of his, arguing with the fourth official, despairing at his team’s unfortunate relationship with the self-destruct button, marvelling at the speed and imagination of their attacks, hoping that they somehow find a way to turn all that potential into major honours.
Wenger has not grown weary with football. It has tested him in recent years but it has not made him cynical. His love for the game feels as if it is bordering on childlike innocence sometimes. He was asked if Arsenal will be ready to challenge for the title next season. Wenger always believes that Arsenal are ready to challenge. He wants to see the best in his youthful team.
“We have that feeling in the squad,” Wenger said “But I understand that it is still a question. We are far behind Chelsea. We are in a pack with Man City and Man United, but then you go into the uncertainty, how strong will they be next season? Nobody knows that.”
Wenger, one suspects, cannot wait to find out. Arsenal visit United on Sunday afternoon and will seal third place with a win, ensuring that they will avoid a Champions League play-off in August.
The rancour of old has mostly disappeared. United were once Arsenal’s bitterest enemies. The pizza flew, the tackles made you wince and there was no love lost between Wenger and Ferguson. Their relationship has mellowed. “He looks very happy in retirement,” Wenger said. “He is lucky because he is interested in horses. You get up in the morning and he goes maybe to the horses for practice or training. It’s early in the morning as well, so that’s great.”
Wenger admits that he will probably spend his retirement watching football. “I love horses as well, but I don’t go to racing,” he said. “I like horses in general. I am a farmer, you know. I rode when I was a kid every day.”
It was suggested that Wenger could take up riding again. “No, no, my back could not take any riding,” he said.
So it comes back to football. And in the present, the question is how Arsenal intend to match Chelsea next season. If there is one area where Wenger and Ferguson differed, it was in the latter’s ruthlessness. Whereas Ferguson rarely showed mercy when he spotted weakness, Wenger is more willing to give players time.
His patience can be admirable but sometimes it holds Arsenal back. They lost 1-0 to Swansea City last Monday and David Ospina, who has usurped Wojciech Szczesny as Wenger’s No1, should have saved Bafétimbi Gomis’s late winner. If Arsenal can sign Petr Cech from Chelsea this summer, they should.
“Look, the target is to target every possible area where you can, but sometimes it’s inside your own team,” Wenger said. “The cohesion is important as well. The cohesion is linked as well with the time the players play together. I could give you so many funny examples that would contradict the theory that it is just about bringing a number of new players in. That doesn’t always work.”
Wenger would prefer to watch his team grow. In a perfect world, Francis Coquelin will become the world’s greatest holding midfielder, Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere will form a formidable duo and Olivier Giroud will leave Diego Costa and Sergio Agüero in the shade. Is it fanciful? Or should he open the chequebook now?
“It sounds good,” he said. “Who doesn’t want a good spine? But to know each other, to play together at the back, in the middle, in the heart of the game, is important as well. To add to the extremes, it is sometimes less risky but to add to where the heart of the team is, playing together for a long time is very important.
“We just spoke about Chelsea. They have a stable defence for two or three years now and they conceded less goals than the other teams. You feel the strength of the teams when you play against them. It will be tight next season. Liverpool will respond as well.”
Wenger is not ready to let go yet.