Arsene Wenger claims that each defeat hurts more than the last — even though his first made him physically sick
Wenger has managed in over 1,600 professional football matches but says defeat never gets easier
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Your support makes all the difference.Arsene Wenger is 67-years-old and has managed over 1,600 professional football matches, but the beleaguered Arsenal manager has claimed that each defeat hurts even worse than the last — even though his first defeat as a manager made him physically sick.
Arsenal travel to non-league outfit Sutton United on Monday night eager to get back to winning ways after a calamitous 5-1 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
Wenger has demanded that his team do not take their eyes off the ball against Sutton, who play on a potentially problematic plastic pitch, and reassured those supporters questioning his position at the club that his hunger for success is as voracious as it ever was.
“I am a fighter, somewhere inside,” Wenger said ahead of his side’s trip to Gander Green Lane.
“You do not stay long in this job if you cannot fight. When you hate defeat like I hate defeat, it's always tough. But I am determined to always fight back.
“Every defeat is harder. I can never accurately transmit to you my feelings about defeat.”
The Frenchman then revealed that after suffering a defeat with his first club AS Nancy, in the 1984/85 season, he had to physically vomit on his way home from the match.
“During one of my first games as a manager, when I was 33 or 34, after my very first defeat I had to go and throw up,” he said. “So whether you are a young manager or an old manager, every single defeat hurts.”
Despite his continued appetite for success, Wenger has come under intense scrutiny in the past week and anything other than a win tonight could see the coach forced to finally announce his plans for next season and beyond.
However, over the weekend, Wenger received some support from a rather unlikely figure: Manchester City manager and Premier League rival, Pep Guardiola.
"What I hear in the last 10 days, about how people, ex-players, journalists, treat Arsene Wenger is unacceptable,” Guardiola said in his press conference after City’s FA Cup fifth-round draw with Huddersfield Town.
"Our job, in that moment, doesn't have any respect for any position, so it is not respectable, what happened.
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