Ex-Arsenal man: Wenger wants to stay and build another double-winning team

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. Photo: Adam Davy/EMPICS Sport

Thursday, February 21, 2013
7:02 PM

Former Arsenal defender Viv Anderson has rubbished talk that Arsene Wenger could resign, saying the Frenchman is keen to take the Gunners back to the very top.

The Arsenal boss has come under pressure in the past week after his side lost 1-0 at home to Blackburn in the FA Cup on Saturday and succumbed to a 3-1 defeat in the first leg of their Champions League knockout tie against Bayern Munich.

Those results, coupled with an indifferent league campaign, means they are likely to end the season trophyless for the eighth successive year.

The future of Wenger, and what transfer funds may be made available to him in the summer, are likely to have been on the agenda at an Arsenal board meeting today.

But former England international Anderson told Press Association Sport he does not feel Wenger will walk away from the club until he feels he has finished his work.

When asked if he could see Wenger resigning, Anderson said: “I’d be very surprised.

“He started off with this mission to achieve things with Arsenal and did really well in his early days. He had to build a stadium, so his hands were tied money-wise and he has had to sell his best players.

“I think he wants to do what Sir Alex (Ferguson, Manchester United manager) has done and forge another double-winning Arsenal team, and I think he is quite capable of doing that - as long as he is given the finances to do it.”

Anderson, who also played for United, feels Wenger would only leave to take the job of coaching France and has backed him to invest any summer transfer war-chest wisely.

He said: “I think he sees Sir Alex doing what he has done, forming at least three teams in his tenure, and thinks ‘yeah’ - unless the call came for him to become his country’s coach, which is always talked about.

“Whether he wants to take that or not I don’t know, but for him to go into league management with someone else, in another country? I don’t know about that.

“I think he would stick with what he knows and try to forge a new Arsenal team - and he is halfway there already. He has some really good young players. All he needs to do is buy wisely - and be given the finance to buy wisely.”