Wenger's Quotes & Sayings

Arsenal could have happened, as everybody knows, but I would not do a trial. Who do you think regrets that more - Arsene Wenger or Zlatan? — Zlatan Ibrahimovic

When I first came to Arsenal, I realised the back four were all university graduates in the art of defending. As for Tony Adams, I consider him to be a doctor of defence. He is simply outstanding. — Arsene Wenger

I'm not scared to spend money. If you go out with me one night, you will understand that. — Arsene Wenger

The real revelation of a player's character is not in his social life but in how he plays. In my social life I can hide my real personality. — Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger uses the FA Cup to bleed his youngsters — Alvin Martin

If Wenger had strengthened in the window, Arsenal could have been stronger — Tony Cascarino

Sometimes now, when I watch continental games on television, I'm a bit bored. I ask, 'where is the intensity?' — Arsene Wenger

It is always a danger when you have a big game ahead, but there is only one way to prepare well for our Champions League game - and that is to do well tomorrow. Therefore, I feel there is a lot at stake for us tomorrow. It is a massive game for us. — Arsene Wenger

Messi's like a PlayStation. He can take advantage of every mistake we make. He made the impossible possible. He has something exceptional. He has six or seven years in front of him, touchwood that nothing happens to him, and he can reach unbelievable levels. — Arsene Wenger

If you have the money and you find the one player who can make you win and make the difference, no matter how expensive he is, you should do it. But there are not many players in the world who will make a real difference. — Arsene Wenger

For a while, you could decide when you loan the player out whether he plays against you or not, and I always decided that he could play against us. But I must say I didn't get any protection from the media because when the player I loaned out scored against us, it's 'aaahhh, look at him, stupid ... ' — Arsene Wenger

When you look at people who are successful, you will find that they aren't the people who are motivated, but have consistency in their motivation. — Arsene Wenger

Everybody has a different opinion in this league and nobody is a prophet. I personally don't know who will win the league. I managed 1,600 games so, if Nani knows, he must be 1,600 times more intelligent than I am. — Arsene Wenger

What makes him special? He has a mixture of physical talent and technical ability, as well as remarkable intelligence and above all a great passion for the game. — Arsene Wenger

You cannot play for Arsenal and give up, no matter what the score is. — Arsene Wenger

At some clubs success is accidental. At Arsenal it is compulsory. — Arsene Wenger

A manager is a guide. He takes a group of people and says, 'With you I can make us a success; I can show you the way.' — Arsene Wenger

As a club, we have an educational purpose: to give back to those people who love Arsenal so that they learn moral values from our game and how we behave. — Arsene Wenger

Everyone thinks they have the prettiest wife at home. — Arsene Wenger

Unfortunately apparently I am to blame because I don't produce enough English players. — Arsene Wenger

Messi is a Playstation. — Arsene Wenger

I think in the future we need to look at our youth department to provide more players for the first team think it is important for a club to have a good amount of players that have roots with the club and region. — Arsene Wenger

I'm not Arsene Wenger. We're different. I want to win — Roberto Mancini

Sometimes you have to swallow the unswallowable — Arsene Wenger

Gerard is an open-minded and passionate man. I am the opposite: stubborn and stupid. But sometimes stupid behaviour makes you win. — Arsene Wenger

People who work make the world live better and to reward these people well is normal. Yet they are not the people who are the wealthiest. — Arsene Wenger

In some ways England is more liberal than France, but I also find it more intrusive. But when you go abroad you have to accept the ways of where you live. I have to respect that. — Arsene Wenger

It's like you wanting to marry Miss World and she doesn't want you, what can I do about it? I can try to help you, but if she does not want to marry you what can I do? — Arsene Wenger

If you do not believe you can do it then you have no chance at all. — Arsene Wenger

The communist model does not work economically, we all realised that, but the capitalist model in the modern world also looks to be unsustainable. — Arsene Wenger

I think in England you eat too much sugar and meat and not enough vegetables. — Arsene Wenger

As a coach you can influence the diet of your players. You can point out what is wrong. — Arsene Wenger

So, Arsenal have signed Arsene Wenger because his name sounds a bit like the club. How long before Man Utd sign Stefan Kuntz? — Frank Skinner

I know how important it is to have a helping hand. — Arsene Wenger

It's like a child who is used to having ice cream whenever he wants. When it doesn't come when he asks he tends to get confused and nervous. — Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger asked me to have a trial with Arsenal when I was 17. I turned it down. Zlatan doesn't do auditions. — Zlatan Ibrahimovic

A company works best when everybody does the job he is paid to do. — Arsene Wenger

Work on your strong points because they are what made you. — Arsene Wenger

I believe one of the best things about managing people is that we can influence lives in a positive way. That's basically what a manager is about. When I can do that, I am very happy. — Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger's idea is not only to play good football. It's to play good football to win. In my day, we knew that with our style we could hurt teams and win trophies too. But we did it our way, with the positional game, passing, movement. — Dennis Bergkamp

You ask me: 'Was he a fair player?' I say: 'No, I'm sorry, for me he was not a fair player.' I just think I respect him highly as a quality player. I did not like some things he did on the football pitch and I have the right to say that. It's not because you are older, suddenly, that you are a saint. — Arsene Wenger

Football is an art, like dancing is an art - but only when it's well done does it become an art. — Arsene Wenger

When you're dealing with someone who only has a pair of underpants on, if you take his underpants off, he has nothing left - he's naked. You're better off trying to find him a pair of trousers to complement him rather than change him. — Arsene Wenger

Wenger has been Arsenal's coach for 15 years but he hasn't won even a Carling Cup for six years. Benitez hasn't won a league title in six years but they continue to keep him as Liverpool's coach. This is not the Italian mentality. To stay here I must continue winning and do well. — Jose Mourinho

If I go into a season and I say, 'For f***'s sake, if we don't win anything, they will all leave,' I have already lost. The problem of the media is always to imagine the worst. The problem of the manager is always to imagine the best. — Arsene Wenger

I take pride in the fact that people go home having felt that for 90 minutes today, life is beautiful - and that's it, basically. That's why professional football exists. — Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger is just an unbelievable manager. I think he's a tremendous person, and he is just as good as there is. You can't judge a manager on one game or on one stretch of games. You judge him over time. — Stan Kroenke

I don't think it's because of my eyes, my beautiful eyes.
(on Henry staying at Arsenal for the money) — Arsene Wenger

I am not against being pragmatic, because it is pragmatic to make a good pass, not a bad one. If I have the ball, what do I do with it? Could anybody argue that a bad solution like just kicking it away is pragmatic just because, sometimes, it works by accident? — Arsene Wenger

If you gave Arsene Wenger eleven players and told him to pick his team, this would be it. — Andy Gray

It's silly to work hard the whole week and then spoil it by not preparing properly before the game. — Arsene Wenger

My job is to give people who work hard all week something to enjoy on Saturdays and Wednesdays. — Arsene Wenger

Practice is a shared history of learning. Practice is conversational. 'Communities of Practice' are groups of people who share a concern (domain) or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better (practice) as they interact regularly (community). — Etienne Wenger

Fair play is an English word. It is not a French word, and it has been copied all over the world. Unfortunately, it does not function any more here. — Arsene Wenger

My target is to make the players as rich as possible within the financial constraints of the club. My target is not to give them less money. I'm happy to make them rich. — Arsene Wenger

Spare me the articles about how nice Shawcross is because that was a horrendous tackle. People say we don't fancy the physical side of it, but this is the result. If you see a player getting injured like that, it's not acceptable. — Arsene Wenger

When you represent a club it's about values and qualities, not about passports. — Arsene Wenger

Emirates Stadium should be named after Arsene Wenger — Alan Pardew

If you don't question the officials' role then you've got to ask what they are doing — Arsene Wenger

As far as I'm concerned, this guy should never play football again. The answer you normally get after a tackle like that is 'he is not the type of guy who does that.' It's like a guy who kills one time in his life - it's enough. You have a dead person. This tackle is absolutely horrendous. — Arsene Wenger

I've told him to cut off his ponytail. I think it makes him less aerodynamic. — Arsene Wenger

When you give success to stupid people, it makes them more stupid sometimes and not more intelligent. — Arsene Wenger

Instead of speaking about Real Madrid, Mr Wenger should speak about Arsenal and explain how he lost 2-0 against a team in the Champions League for the first time [Braga]. The history about the young kids is getting old now. Sagna, Clichy, Walcott, Fabregas, Song, Nasri, Van Persie, Arshavin are not kids. They are all top players. — Jose Mourinho

The best football players in the world still earn very little money compared to people who really earn money. — Arsene Wenger

We have tried to get closer to them, but we never copied anybody, we always tried to play our football — Arsene Wenger

In a competitive world, not everybody can follow the pace; you will leave people out. We now accept that we must take care of these people. You cannot let them die in the streets; people will not accept it. And that is right, too. — Arsene Wenger

For me, motivation is a person who has the capability to recruit the resources he needs to achieve a goal. — Arsene Wenger

Ferguson's out of order. He has lost all sense of reality. He is going out looking for a confrontation, then asking the person he is confronting to apologise. He's pushed the cork in a bit far this time. — Arsene Wenger

I have been accused of not taking seriously the FA Cup on Saturday. I have won four times the FA Cup. Who has won it more? Give me one name. — Arsene Wenger

If you want to win a horse race, you need your horse to be 100%. — Arsene Wenger

Of course, we also have the responsibility to win games and the difficulty in the job is to combine both. — Arsene Wenger

I also think we live in a competitive world, and I love competition. — Arsene Wenger

Their diet is basically boiled vegetables, fish and rice. No fat, no sugar. You notice when you live there that there are no fat people. — Arsene Wenger

Ive got nothing against foreign managers, they are very nice people. Apart from Arsene Wenger — Tony Pulis

Private life is private life. Off the pitch, there is private life, and the rest is social life, where of course you have to behave responsibly. — Arsene Wenger

In my job, you expect to suffer. That's why when I go to hell one day, it will be less painful for me than you, because I'm used to suffering. — Arsene Wenger

Knowledge management will never work
until corporations realize it's not about
how you capture knowledge but
how you create and leverage it. — Etienne Wenger

To not apologize for the behavior of the players to another manager is unthinkable. It's a disgrace, but I don't expect Wenger to ever apologize ... he's that type of person. — Alex Ferguson

If I were going to war I would want to be alongside an Englishman not a Frenchman. The Frenchman would think too much. — Arsene Wenger

Having not had a chance to review the tape and obviously not been in the tunnel, I will take the Wenger amendment on this one for now. — Phil Cornwell

Nobody will finish above us in the league. It wouldn't surprise me if we were to go unbeaten for the whole of the season. — Arsene Wenger

I think training of better Youth Coaches is essential. — Arsene Wenger

It's a strange atmosphere always over there, it is darker and less glamorous, and you don't feel as high. It is a different kind of test - can you raise your level in a less exciting environment and perhaps still a very difficult one? — Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger has got to unlock the purse strings — John Motson

If you eat caviar every day it's difficult to return to sausages. — Arsene Wenger

The score is high and very brutal but does not reflect what we saw on the pitch. The first shot on goal was a goal. The second was an own goal. The third was straight after half-time. They defend like mad and they catch us on the break. — Arsene Wenger

Thierry Henry could take the ball in the middle of the park and score a goal that no one else in the world could score. — Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger is sitting on the hot chair — Bobby Gould

No matter how much money you earn, you can only eat three meals a day and sleep in one bed. — Arsene Wenger

I'm a great believer in the Arsene Wenger school of management - which is, you don't worry about the opposition, you just get your own act together — David Miliband

You weren't world-class when Arsenal signed you. — Arsene Wenger

Gerard Houllier's thoughts on the matter international football echo mine. He thinks that what the national coaches are doing is like taking the car from his garage without even asking permission. They will then use the car for ten days and abandon it in a field without any petrol left in the tank. We then have to recover it, but it is broken down. Then a month later they will come to take your car again, and for good measure you're expected to be nice about it. — Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger was talking about comparisons with Johan Cruyff, a player who only comes around every 10 years and Thierry Henry is definitely one of those — Gordon Strachan

If somebody stamps on your head in that way, you wouldn't say, 'thank you very much' and turn the other cheek. Only Jesus Christ did that. — Arsene Wenger

Young players need freedom of expression to develop as creative players ... they should be encouraged to try skills without fear of failure. — Arsene Wenger

The chairmen of the largest companies in the world can cancel an appointment or move a board meeting; a manager cannot change the date of a game. In the combined 42 years that Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger have managed in English football, I can only remember one occasion when Sir Alex did not attend a Manchester United game. — Howard Wilkinson

Have Tottenham closed the gap on Arsenal?
Last time I checked they were still 4 miles and 11 titles away — Arsene Wenger

We played a whole season unbeaten but you did not see me every week jumping on the tables. Once it's over it's over and you do in the next one as well as you can. Plenty of managers who have won the Champions League will not be considered great managers. — Arsene Wenger

My coach confirmed to me my impression that he uses a different measuring stick to evaluate Almunia. For me, this was a huge disappointment. That has forced me to think about my situation. I have to ask myself what is still realistic and possible for me at Arsenal? When Wenger says something like that, it's going to be difficult for me to get back in here. It's very frustrating. When I see the performances on the field, I get angry and I have to clench my fist in my pocket. — Jens Lehmann

In England you have a good phrase. It is 'to bring the game into disrepute. — Arsene Wenger