‘I have three years to go with Arsenal and I always respect my contract’

Arsene Wenger insists he has no plans to walk out on Arsenal despite being under extreme pressure and enduring a nightmare start to the season, culminating in a 8-2 defeat by Manchester United, after a turbulent summer when ‘half the dressing room wanted to leave’.

But it seems that he has managed to turn things around with Arsenal, putting a run of 5 wins out of 6 together – posing the question ‘what crisis?’

Wenger reiterated his commitment to Arsenal and has pledged to see out his current contract, even though reports in France suggested Paris Saint-Germain were ready to offer him the job of sporting director of the mega-rich club – the French equivalent of Manchester City. The reason for this is because Wenger has acted as an adviser to Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar and owner of the French club PSG.

During an interview before the game in France against Marseille last night, Wenger said:

‘I have three years to go with Arsenal and I always respect my contract.’

‘I’ve known Al Kalifa (Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar), and them (TV station Al Jazeera) for a long time.’

‘I know well their TV and I advised them at some stage when they wanted to go into football, buying television rights and things like that.’

The game last night was the first time Wenger faced Marseille since they were stripped of a league title following a bribery scandal.

Asked about the history with the club, the former Monaco boss went on to say:

‘That is over now because the owners are not the same.’

‘Now it is completely different. Football has changed in France. I don’t think there is any need any more to speak about this period because it was not the happiest period of French football.’

Meanwhile, The Frenchman is hoping to avoid a repeat of last season when Arsenal were runners up in the group and were drawn against current European champions Barcelona in the knockout stages.

And when asked about Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who has not featured in Arsenal’s last 3 games despite scoring on his full debuts in the Carling Cup and Champions League, as well as scoring a hat-trick for England Under-21s, he said:

‘He’ll play next week certainly in the Carling Cup,’ ‘Maybe he will be involved on Sunday [against Stoke] – he is getting sharper.’

So with three years left on his contract, will he be able to leave the club on a high and break the clubs six year trophy drought despite already having won many trophies’ for the Gunners in the past? And all the talk about AOC makes me wonder when Wenger will field the likes of Park Chu-Yong and Ryo Miyachi in the Premier League. I have heard so many people say that they are brilliant and seen them play before; all I want to see is how they will cope in the league as a first-team player. If they are as good as we know they are and could be, we could have a squad strong enough squad to make Wenger’s worst year in charge a year in which he ends the current trophy drought – something that is surely on his check list.

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