The Gunners boss is the oldest manager in the Premier League and he has refused to rule out surpassing Sir Alex Ferguson, who called it a day at 71
Arsene Wenger celebrates his 67th birthday on Saturday - insisting results will determine whether he remains the king of the "jungle".
The Arsenal boss is currently the oldest manager in the Premier League yet has refused to rule out surpassing the reign of Sir Alex Ferguson who was 71 when he quit Manchester United three years ago.
“I would prefer to be the youngest manager in the League!” he said.
“Ferguson? 71? I don’t know. At the moment I feel good. I focus today on Middlesbrough and how to win the game. I do not focus on my age.
“I never liked the retirement word. We are there to be active and to fight. Life is no other issue than to fight until the last day of your life as much as you can.
“I believe that you forget your age if you are in good health and all the rest inside you is a love for competition and a love to improve every day.
“It’s like being a player. Once you get to a certain age, you have a bad game and they think ‘you have to go’. That’s why the demands are even higher than before.
“Your age quickly becomes a psychological excuse to get rid of you.”
Asked whether, like Sir Alex, he feared retirement Wenger added: “Yes of course because I will miss what I love. Nobody who lives a whole life by being motivated by the next game, stops suddenly and goes to church every day.
“When I started to manage was I was 33. I’m one of the few managers in the world who has not stopped at all.
“There’s been no break, I’ve worked every day my whole life because I love it. What has changed is that back then I started alone, today I have a team around the team.
“You have fitness preparation, I did the warm-up, goalkeeper training, everything. I would certainly not be able to do that today.”
Wenger will go through his own personal fitness regime before joining his squad for the Emirates game against Middlesbrough that he hopes will keep his side rolling with the title-chasing pack.
“We live in a jungle where everybody wants to eat you." he said. "You have to survive by keeping your vigilance. That’s what competition is about. Every day you have to fight again to survive.”
He may not display the histrionics on the touchline shown by the likes of Antonio Conte and Jurgen Klopp.
But Wenger went on: “I am as passionate and angry as I was before. Maybe I am not as fast as I was before, although I would like to arrange a race with you!”
The Boro result will determine whether the Frenchman savours a satisfying glass of red - or the whole bottle. Even then, the decision is likely to be taken at home in front of the telly and not as part of a big night out.
Wenger is more likely to catch either the Spanish League basement battle between Granada and Sporting Dijon or the French Ligue 1 contest between Bordeaux and Nancy.
“The result is 99 per cent of my celebration!” he said. “I have nothing planned. Maybe watch a night game.
“Our happiness is linked with our last result, not with our birthday. That is what a manager’s life is about.”
Asked whether he feels like an OAP, Wenger smiled: “If you lived with me everyday you would understand that I am not like that.
“I train every day. Running? I do everything. If all professional footballers lived like I do they would be fit for all 10 months of the season.
“I run outside of training. I have my ritual preparation for the game, same as the players.
“Since I was a kid I have loved competition. I wanted to compete always. You have members of your family that don’t have that. I don’t know where it comes from.
“I’ve always said that if one day I go up to heaven and God asks”: ‘Do you want to come in? What have you done in your life?’, the only answer I will have is ‘I tried to win football games’
“He will say ‘Is that all you have done?’ and I the only answer I will have is ‘It’s not as easy as it looks’."
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