World News – UA – Every defeat is still a scar in my heart, says Wenger

Arsène Wenger still believes he could milk a cow but, as he says with a smile: « I haven’t tried for a long time. Maybe I lost the technique a bit » Wenger is one of the most human and original thinkers in football and so it’s no surprise that, moving beyond his « obsession », we spend 100 minutes talking about much more than the game that consumes him. He describes how he learned to milk cows as a boy in the Alsatian village of Duttlenheim in France, or relives his first memory as a five-year-old watching his local football team while holding a prayer book, Wenger points out that his life was built on the pillars of hard work and faith « It’s amazing that you make your life with the values ​​of childhood I think all the champions I have met are the same They had the root of their motives in childhood ‘Having recently lost s A sister and brother in the span of six months, Wenger admits the writing of his compelling autobiography has gotten darker « Maybe because you feel guilty too, » he says at his home outside London. , who ran Arsenal for 22 years, shrugs with regret “When you have a passion, you are selfish because the people who suffer the most are the ones around you Unconsciously you always give an excuse because you think, ‘I will see them in a month « When you leave [football], you think it’s a little scary how selfish and one-way you were. » 24 years ago, in October 1996, Wenger’s immersion in Arsenal started as he became the club’s new unknown manager He was only the fourth foreign manager to work in England’s top flight – and the top three had failed Of course, Wenger, who won three Premier League titles and seven FA Cups, had a seismic influence about English football But we often forget how he suffered soon after his arrival He writes that « the sheer hostility, the lies, the heinous allegations … started with a radio host, a Spurs fan, so I was told I had apparently been spotted in unsavory places, in absurd situations « The baseless rumors escalated Wenger lived alone in a hotel in London while Annie, his future wife, had not yet joined him. – lunch, people looked at him suspiciously or turned away « It was intolerable I wondered if the world had gone mad, how could such lies be written without any proof or truth, just to smear a man I was very in anger « Wenger seems optimistic now » I was quite surprised by the violence of these allegations because I didn’t know where they came from and why But then I thought, « Why am I doing this work? Let’s focus on this I was 47 and I knew who I was and what I wanted in life so it didn’t depress me too much I was in Monaco for seven years and in Japan two years before arriving here I knew that in different countries you sometimes face adversity ”Did that shake his affection for England? « No I love England, because it is a country of passion, emotion, sport and music, and it is courageous But it is also a country where there is media competition and sometimes there is ‘is out of control « For Wenger, the nadir happened when Annie’s 12-year-old son was stalked by tabloid reporters » It wasn’t very fair, no, « he said quietly. held an impromptu press conference outside Highbury and his way of speaking was so convincing that the lies suddenly stopped « But it left something vicious in the crowds, » he recalls. Years later, vitriolic supporters again resorted to chants calling him a pedophile Wenger « knitted me a soul in red and white » in showing unbreakable loyalty to Arsenal But, as so often happens with great managers, he lingers on defeats As a young manager at Nancy, Wenger was hit with a loss just before the Christmas break He was so sorry – « like a zombie » – he spent Christmas and the next three weeks alone He believes that « this dark place » was « where I learned patience, endurance and rigor » « I had problems doing in the face of defeat I sometimes threw up and it took a while to recover from a defeat I wondered if I was made for this job because when you suffer so much physically you will not survive But I have always had a quick recovery I’m an optimist, basically I thought, « No sounds to the next «  » Has he ever been physically ill after losing Arsenal? « I was more mentally ill I made 1235 games for Arsenal and I did not miss any I do not remember when I was bedridden to miss training in 22 years But, after the defeat, you do not sleep never You have an internal film that crosses your mind It’s a feeling of anger, of humiliation, of hate The next day you have to put that in perspective but each defeat is still a scar on my heart ”In 2003-04, when his Invincibles haven’t lost a league game all season, he wasn’t ‘afraid of anything Just go to a game and play – and you will win I wanted to play the perfect season Usually when you win the Premiership, two or three games later you suffer a loss I told the players: « You can become immortal if you keep focusing ‘This is what happened » The inevitable end of the record unbeaten streak came in the 50th fateful match, in a controversial loss to Manchester United at Old Trafford “You felt a sense of injustice because we didn’t deserve to lose this game,” says Wenger “Rooney got a slight penalty and in the first 20 minutes Ljungberg was cleared and Rio Ferdinand should have been sent off With VAR today he would be gone What was bad was that we climbed Everest and fell back to earth Now you tell the players we have to climb again It’s hard « Wenger was the most haunted by the Champions League – and in particular the 2006 final where, initially reduced to 10 men, they led 1-0 until the 79th minute where they conceded two late goals in Barcelona “We had beaten Real Madrid with Ronaldo, Figo, Zidane and Raúl and we did not concede a goal during the entire knockout stage We beat Juventus who had Vieira, Ibrahimovic, Trezeguet It was extremely frustrating We had the opportunity to score the second goal twice and if we had played with 11 against 11 we would certainly have won the European Cup  » More fortunately, he did not forget the most beautiful victories “With a young team, we won against Madrid with a fantastic goal from Thierry Henry, and when we won in Milan, they were European champions. Their crowd stood up and applauded us These are times when you play the game the way you want – like when we won 5-1 at Inter [in 2003] But you don’t remember the losses « 

Arsène Wenger, José Mourinho, Arsenal FC, Tottenham Hotspur FC, Manchester United FC