Wenger - Trophies are not everything to me
Trophies are not the only things that Arsène Wenger wants his team to win. The Arsenal manager wants the hearts, minds, admiration and respect of the football community.
With two months left in the season, the Frenchman is closing in on his two main targets — the Premier League and the Champions League. Should he lift either, it will end a three-year wait for silverware.
However, speaking at Thursday’s press conference, the Arsenal manager explained why that hiatus did not hang heavy on his shoulders. He wants victory, yes, but victory with integrity.
“I try to do my job as well as I can,” said Wenger. “If it’s not good enough people will tell me. But I don't feel under more pressure to win trophies this year than any other year.
“I know people who have won trophies and I don’t rate them at all. I can give you examples of people who have won 100-metre medals in the Olympic Games and they have cheated. I know people in football who have done exactly the same, you look at the history of football.
“What is important for me is to do things in a fair way and in a way that people will enjoy. Of course, a trophy is what you can show but what remains is not only the trophy but the way you play, the way you behave.
“Winning can never be everything,” he went on. “And to destroy people can never be everything. I do not understand those who come out to destroy people. That is not what life is about. Why should you always have to kill other people to exist? If you do that then, somewhere, you feel you are not good enough.
“It's like you say to me you kick everybody off the park and at the end of the season you win a trophy. To win trophies is important but it is not the only thing in sport.”
