Real Madrid has come knocking and part of Florentino Perez’s rebuilding of the club not only includes the potential signing of high powered stars like Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Cesc Fabregas but also getting a quality manager. Real has been linked with Wenger for a number of years but it is usually in the fevered imaginations of publications like Marca. The Frenchman usually dismisses them.
However, he met up Perez in Paris last week in which he was informed about Real’s plans. In an interview with a French media outlet, Wenger reportedly said that the Perez’s vision would sound attractive to any coach. When it came to the question of commitment to Arsenal he offered a bit more ambiguity saying “”In general I usually stay until the end of my contract.” His contract runs till 2011.
I think Wenger has been hurt by the negative feelings of many supporters who see the present club’s performance as hitting an impasse.
Frustration bubbled over in recent shareholder meeting where Wenger was put on the spot and reacted with some feeling stating that “You sit here, you are in the last four in Europe, and every day you feel you have killed someone,” he said. “It is unbelievable.”
The less than unequivocal commitment to the club maybe a bit of a shot across the bow to the fans but it also feels like a warning to the board that they need to open up the purse strings to get some quality players. So far Wenger has been very careful, tightly controlling transfer money so as not to add onto existing stadium debt. What works in the clubs favour is Wenger’s mantra that the club needs just a couple of quality additions to the defense and midfield to start winning titles. He will need to honour his contract to prove this theory true.
However you might want to interpret this, a line has been crossed with this meeting.