ARSENE Wenger does not believe he is ready to manage against Arsenal yet, having taken charge of the club for the final time on Sunday.
The 68-year-old’s tenure ended with victory over Huddersfield Town, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s first-half goal enough to secure Arsenal’s first points away from home this calendar year.
Wenger intends to remain in management and claims to have already received numerous offers from other clubs, but he does not yet feel emotionally prepared to face his employers of the last 22 years.
“I’m not ready for that at the moment,” he said in his post-match press conference.
“It would be very difficult. I think on this day I’d stay at home. I don’t know. I don’t envisage that at the moment.” Asked whether he had received offers of work, he said: “Yes I had offers, of course
At the moment, I did not even speak to anybody. I’ve had many offers.
“When you come out of such a long process, you cannot jump out and just the next morning go somewhere else. It’s impossible.” Wenger did not reveal whether any Premier League clubs have inquired about his services.
“Maybe it’s better I go somewhere else,” he added, when asked if he would consider working in English football again.
The Frenchman spent some time before kick-off sat in the John Smith’s Stadium’s away dugout, savouring the occasion, and at one stage found himself staring back at an image of the only other man who could be described as Arsenal’s greatest ever manager.
“I wanted to get a bit of oxygen, my last day,” Wenger said. “Nice weather, people were nice, Huddersfield were happy, they gave me a nice present.
“Herbert Chapman (Arsenal’s two-time First Division-winning manager in the 1930s) came from here, for me to come here on the last day was a special meaning when you know the history of our club. Chapman smiled at me, as he was on the photo just outside the dressing room.”
