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Arsene Wenger promises his successor a solid platform


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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has vowed to leave his successor with a platform to "deliver something exceptional" at the north London club

Wenger has been in charge at Arsenal since September 1996 and while he enjoyed great success in his initial years at the club, he has come under fire from some supporters after winning just one major trophy in the past decade.

The Frenchman is always reluctant to talk about what may lie ahead for Arsenal when the time comes for him to step down, but he opened up on the subject in a BBC interview conducted by his former player Martin Keown.

Wenger said: "I want to leave the club in a strong and healthy position and that means with good players, with good youth behind and a strong financial position to go further up and develop more. I will do that, you can believe me.

"The guy that comes in after me will be in a very good position to deliver something exceptional. I believe that the biggest quality at a top, top club is to maintain consistency in the results and I hope that when I've left someday and come back to the Emirates to watch a game, I will be very happy to see a quality team."

Wenger insisted he will judge his own career on a different criteria to many of his critics, as Keown asked him where he keeps the medals he has won over the course of his long coaching career.

"Martin, I don't even know where they are," he continued. "That tells you that I don't look back. Maybe one day I will regret this, but I would like to look back on my career and think more about the human side of it rather than the medals. You would like to think when I meet the former players I remember more what kind of people they were than what I won with them."

Wenger went on to restate previous suggestions that he has turned down numerous chances to leave Arsenal, and suggested he was satisfied with the job he had done despite the lack of silverware in the last decade.

"In 2004, 2005 and 2006 I had chances to leave, but I went with the club to have the challenge of building the new stadium and not dropping out of the Champions League three years out of five," he said. "That was the financial request and we did it [qualified] every year.

"I knew it was a very sensitive period for the club, but I feel I've done my job in a very committed and faithful way."

One of the defining fixtures of Wenger's reign as Arsenal manager has been his often inflammatory relationship with former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, and ahead of Monday's FA Cup quarter-final against Old Trafford, he reflected on a thawing in their rivalry after initial bust-ups.

"I'm happy to see him now, much more than before," Wenger said of Ferguson, who stepped down as United manager in the summer of 2013. "We have been through some difficult spells in our relationship, but in the end it became more peaceful and respectful.
"Today we are happy to have a good dinner together or a good glass of wine and talk about football. We can rise above the differences we had before."

Wenger also offered words of support for current United manager Louis van Gaal, as he suggested the criticism flowing in the direction of the experienced Dutchman in his first season at the club is partly due to a changing media landscape that demands instant success.

"He is a great manager and when you look at what he has done in his life it is absolutely outstanding," he added of Van Gaal. "He is in a period where he has rebuilt the team and he has stabilised them now.

"I believe as well the environment of the teams and the clubs has changed now because everyone is under extreme scrutiny now. The media environment is much more demanding, the social network is much more demanding. Every game today is a trial where you are judged before and after."

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