During his reign at both Highbury and Emirates Stadium, Arsen Wenger became the most successful head coach in the club’s history, collecting three Premier League titles, including the memorable 2003-04 Invincibles campaign, and seven FA Cup triumphs.However, with fans ultimately turning on him for what they perceived to be underachievement, his last few years at the club turned sour. Despite providing Arsenal with 20 consecutive seasons of Champions League football, Wenger described his final few months at the club as ‘like a funeral’.The 72-year-old has finally opened up and admitted that staying at the club for as long as he did – was a wrong decision. ‘I identified myself completely with the club – that was the mistake I made,’ said Wenger, as per the Telegraph.’My fatal flaw is I love too much where I am… where I was. I regret it. I should have gone somewhere else. Sometimes I wonder – was something broken after that Invincible season?”2007 was a decisive point. It was the first time I could feel there were tensions inside the board.Sat, 20/11, 20.30: (1.43) LIVERPOOL (4.70) ARSENAL (8.50)’I still today wonder if I did the right thing because life was never exactly the same after. I thought, “I have now to go to the end of this project”.’I could have gone to the French national team. The English national team twice or three times even. I could have gone twice to Real Madrid. I could have gone to Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, even Man United.’In his first decade at the club, Wenger’s reign had been synonymous with success, the Frenchman’s three Premier League titles all coming in his first 10 years. He was in charge as Arsenal made the move from Highbury to the Emirates in 2006, which was an imperative for long-term financial improvement. However, it slowed down team’s fortunes on the pitch as they were not able to invest in massive player signings – something other clubs kept doing during that period.Two disallowed goals and a missed penalty for Arsenal but Smith Rowe saves the dayWenger has not been back to the Emirates since leaving three years ago.’Now there is no special reason for me to go there,’ he said. ‘All the rest is purely emotion, and that is less important. It is the end of your life – at least of one life – like a funeral. The end of a love story is always sad.’Arsenal’s current manager played under Wenger for five years – Mikel Arteta witnessed the Frenchman’s in his final days with the club and ever since taking over he has been under the critics’ ‘microscope’ . The Spaniard had spells during which Arsenal fans wished Wenger would come back and take over again. But – at the moment, it seems Gunners believe Arteta is leading the troops in the right direction.With the latest Premier League win over Watford, Arsenal see an unbeaten run of 10 games in all competitions.
