Press conference

Wenger - The period when I did my best job

As expected, Arsene Wenger's final pre-match press conference had little to do with Sunday's game at Huddersfield and was more about looking back at his 22 years in charge of the club.

What is his favourite moment as Arsenal manager? What is his biggest regret? This is what he told the media at London Colney:

 

on his most cherished memory...

Maybe my first title here because I came completely unknown and in my first full year I won the championship. I would say personally from 2006 to 2015 it was certainly the period where I needed to be the strongest and [where] I did the best job. To accept to commit to five years when you build the stadium to work with restricted resources and keep the club in a position where we can pay our debts back, I personally feel I did my best job in that period. Not the most glamorous maybe, but the most difficult.

 

on the match he would change...

It's always the last one - not Leicester because there was nothing at stake - but Atletico Madrid. When you come out of these two games and you are out of the semi-final of the Europa League... when you come out of the first leg with 1-1 and it should be 3-0, it is what you would like to change. Even with my experience, when it was 1-0 in the second half [of the first leg] I never thought it would finish 1-1. I thought maybe we won't score the second goal, but we cannot concede - they never crossed the halfway line. Always the last pain is the biggest one.

 

on it not being the Champions League final in 2006...

That was in 2006, it is over 11 years ago and of course it is still painful but my last pain, the last big defeat, is that.

 

on his best Arsenal team: 1998 or 2004?

2004. Their achievement, nobody has done it since in the Premier League. I loved the team in 1998 because I found some players had quality much better than I thought they were when I arrived here. They were very intelligent as well. And they were an experienced team. After, we added a bit more exceptional quality in 2002 and 2004. Overall, maybe the Invincibles.

 

on what his legacy is: trophies or stadium?

It's a bit of all of that. I would say the legacy is what you think is important, with the way you behave with your players. I get so many messages from players, that are not about the trophies we won together, they are more about the human aspect. That's what the players keep - and the values of the club - that they realise when they go somewhere else. That's what you want and after that you want the style of play, as the manager has an influence on the way you play football. The idea that you want to give from the game you love. The structures of the club, the way you can influence individual players' lives as well. All that together you would want to be remembered for.

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