Arsene Wenger might well be using England job talk to secure a new contract at Arsenal
ARSENE WENGER was presented with a crystal vase ahead of his 20th anniversary press conference but it was a crystal ball that everybody wanted him to gaze into once the questioning began in earnest.
FanView - Arsenal Fans' Happy Anniversary Message to Arsene Wenger
There was the anticipated invitation to stroll down memory lane, with Wenger reflecting on the changes that have occurred over the past two decades.
But with the England post vacant it was his future that had journalists hanging on every word – and in that regard he offered up just a few carefully-chosen ones.
“My priority is to do well here,” he said. “This has always been my club. I am concentrated on my job.”
But in the middle of his pledge of allegiance were eight short words of encouragement to all England fans.
“If I am free one day, why not?”
Wenger is a canny negotiator and his £8m-a-year salary has not been arrived at by accident. After all, he would have been on around £200,000-a-year when he walked in through the door as an unknown in 1996. A 40-fold increase while the rest of the nation saw their salary roughly double.
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Arsene Wenger has admitted he could leave Arsenal at the end of the season
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Now Pep Guardiola is reported to earn nearly twice as much as the Arsenal boss and Wenger will be keen, if he is to continue his work at the club he has effectively built, to see that balance redressed.
And he knows better than anybody that keeping alive the threat of taking up England’s poisoned chalice is the biggest negotiating card in his hand when he does eventually sit down to talks with his current deal due to expire at the end of the season.
That’s if there are more talks. As Wenger himself had said earlier in the conference, “it’s a love story and you always expect a love story to last forever, but it can always stop suddenly.”
If that were to happen, Wenger has given his strongest indication yet that it might well be worth England waiting to pick him up on the rebound.