Arsene Wenger has spoken of the special place the FA Cup still holds in his heart after revealing that he watched the final each year as a child.
The Arsenal manager has won the competition four times during his time in England, but his relationship with it stretches back much further.
"On black-and-white television, every year we saw the cup final. It’s a very prestigious competition for me"
Ahead of Friday’s fourth-round clash with Coventry City, the 64-year-old insists the cup remains hugely important to him.
“The only competition I could watch in France when I was a kid was the FA Cup final,” Wenger said. “On black-and-white television, every year we saw the cup final. It’s a very prestigious competition for me.
“It’s true that maybe it does not have the glamour nowadays that it had in the 60s and 70s but it is still for me a very important competition.
“I remember that I was always admiring Wembley’s pitch because I used to play on really bad pitches and the white ball - it was for me a dream to have this kind of ball! I played with a ball with laces at the time so that was always something special to watch.”
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