Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger not interested in Real Madrid move
Going nowhere: Arsene Wenger insists he has no interest in moving to Real Madrid if they decide to part company with Manuel Pellegrini Photo: GETTY IMAGES
The Frenchman turned down the chance of masterminding Florentino Pérez’s extraordinary spending spree at Real last summer and, even after buying Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Kaka and Xabi Alonso, they were eliminated on Wednesday at the last-16 stage of the Champions League for a sixth consecutive season.
It has left manager Manuel Pellegrini under huge pressure but Wenger, whose team have reached a fourth Champions League quarter-final in five years, has no interest in leaving his Arsenal project.
“I am always going to the end of my contract and I am going until 2011 – there is no way,” he said. Asked if he had a message for Madrid, he smiled: “Yes, leave me alone.”
Wenger can take particular pleasure at his achievements at Arsenal given how little he has spent on transfer fees compared to his main rivals.
“It shows in Europe you have no guarantee,” he said. “£240 million doesn’t buy you the Champions League necessarily. If you can spend it every year you will get there. But it is the first year with Pérez back and you have to give him time. He only has to invest again next year, so I think they will be a force again.
"At the moment I focus on Hull City. Maybe less glamorous than Real Madrid but they are much more important in my life at the moment."
Pellegrini, meanwhile, has dismissed suggestions he may resign, claiming he did not agree to leave Villarreal for a “project which only lasted one year” and insisting he can match the achievements of his predecessors, Fabio Capello and Bernd Schuster, by wresting the league title from Barcelona.
“My future depends on what the board decides, but I will not resign,” he said. “I do not think this project was only about this year. We would have liked to win everything but we are still top of the league table and we have to turn the page as quickly as possible.
“We can win the title, like Schuster and Capello did. You cannot judge a project like this after just a few months.”
The Spanish press, certainly, seem to disagree. Marca’s front page on Thursday read: “Out - Goodbye Champions League, Goodbye Pellegrini”.