This weekend, as well as ending the current Premier League season, marked the end of Arsène Wenger’s reign as Arsenal manager, with the 68-year-old stepping down from the role after 22 years in charge.
His tenure saw the Gunners go through a variety of ups and downs, with the peak probably coming during the 2003 “Invincible” season.
Following his final game, which was his 1235th in charge of the London side, Wenger gave an interview to SFR Sport in France, who discussed the fact he’d been at the club for over two decades, and how baffling that is, even to him now.
He said: “I arrived on October 1st 1996. In football, one year is a lot. Two years is extremely long. Never would I have thought at the time that I’d stay here 22 years. I probably expected a maximum of three years”.
As the club now work towards find the Frenchman’s successor, Wenger was also keen to praise the fans before he left, even if they were sometimes ‘vindictive’, as he put it.
In the end, as Wenger said, everything he did and the emotions the fans had towards him were due to one thing in common: the love they have for Arsenal as a club.
What next for the soon-to-be ex-Arsenal manager? Only he knows, but he’ll probably have a well deserved lie in for a couple of months.
