The Frenchman revealed that the Man Utd job was one of several he could have taken
Arsene Wenger has claimed that he could have gone to Manchester United after he was offered the job during his managerial career.
As reported in the Telegraph, the former Arsenal legend also believes that he contemplated leaving the club at least 10 years before his actual departure in 2018, something he regrets not doing.
The Frenchman spent 22 years at the helm for the Gunners, and ahead of the release of the film ‘Arsene Wenger: Invincible’ – which comes out on Amazon Prime this week – admitted that he should have left Arsenal earlier than he did.
“I identified myself completely with the club – that was the mistake I made,” Wenger said.
“My fatal flaw is I love too much where I am… where I was. I regret it. I should have gone somewhere else.”
Whilst he regrets not leaving, Wenger went to add that he wasn’t short of offers to take a new job, including the Manchester United job.
He said: “I could have gone to the French national team. The English national team twice or three times even. I could have gone twice to Real Madrid. I could have gone to Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, even Man United.”
After winning the league unbeaten in 2004, Wenger admitted that he looked to leave three years later after he was torn between loyalty to the club and former Arsenal chairman David Dein, who left in 2007.
He said: “Sometimes I wonder – was something broken after that Invincible season?
“2007 was a decisive point. It was the first time I could feel there were tensions inside the board. I was torn between being loyal to the club and being loyal to David [Dein].
“I still today wonder if I did the right thing because life was never exactly the same after. I thought, ‘I have now to go to the end of this project.'”
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