Arsene Wenger says he believes keeping Arsenal competitive in their barren years has been the most important achievement of his reign.
Winning last season’s FA Cup final gave the London side their first piece of silverware in nine years, a trophy drought that had seen some question whether the 64-year-old Frenchman was still the right man to take the club forward.
Having delivered three Premier League titles since taking the reigns in 1996, Wenger has also overseen a move to the Emirates Stadium – a decision that left the club unable to compete financially with other title rivals for almost a decade.
In the intervening years after leaving Highbury, Wenger still managed to guide Arsenal to top-four finishes ensuring their participation in the Uefa Champions League in every season and finally ended his wait for a trophy with a 3-2 win over Hull in May at Wembley Stadium.
With the purse strings also loosened as the loans taken out to build their new home were repaid, Wenger has finally been able to flex his muscles in the transfer market – breaking the club’s transfer record last year to sign Mesut Ozil and acquiring Chile forward Alexis Sanchez this summer.
But it was those years of battling against free-spending sides like Chelsea and Manchester City, as well as rivals such as Manchester United and Liverpool, which Wenger concedes he may remember more fondly in the years to come. “I accepted the challenge when I signed my contract knowing what would happen,” he said.
“Personally, I think it was the most sensitive and important period of my career here – it was exciting to keep the club at the level with less resources.
“Did we do well or not? The only thing I can say is that we were consistent at that level, but maybe we lacked some quality to really win it. The only thing I can assure you is that I gave absolutely everything to do as well as I could. Is it enough? You’ll never know. Could someone have done better? You never know.”
With the FA Cup success behind him, Wenger signed another contract extension at the club, with the new three-year deal taking him until 2017.
Negotiations over the deal were lengthy, but Wenger is adamant he always wanted to sign.
“I don’t want to answer that question,” he replied when asked if there would have been doubt over his future without the trophy win.
“Was it always going to happen? Certainly. I always said the same thing, I want to think that I have done well for the club. My motivation was never at stake, I always wanted to stay.
“But as well I wanted to feel that I had done a good job. The fact that we could not win was going on my mind, and it was important for me to feel like I was doing a decent job.
“I never look behind me at what is done. I look in front of me. I’m always turned forward.
“We have won the cup but we want to win more and we want to come back and fight for more, what is done is done.”
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Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
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Current number of staff: More than 150
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
Directed: Smeep Kang
Produced: Soham Rockstar Entertainment; SKE Production
Cast: Rishi Kapoor, Jimmy Sheirgill, Sunny Singh, Omkar Kapoor, Rajesh Sharma
Rating: Two out of five stars