Arsenal Wenger will stay at Arsenal only if he has the board’s full backing.
The Frenchman, who has now clinched the seventh FA Cup trophy during his illustrious 21-year reign at the North London club, wants the Gunners hierarchy to accept his demands.
Wenger held positive talks with the maximum stakeholder, US tycoon Stan Kroenke, after their 2-1 win over Chelsea at Wembley.
And Wenger now wants the full support of the Gunners board at a meeting tomorrow in order to confirm his future at the club before signing the new two-year deal.
He said: “The board has to decide who will lead the club in the future.”
“And after they decide if they want me, they decide if they want me, do I say yes or no?”
Wenger has been left frustrated by too much of internal criticism.
It is believed that Kroenke is in favour of Wenger – but the former AS Monaco boss has demanded full support after guiding Arsenal to their 13th FA Cup triumph.
He said: “I am committed to giving everything to stay.”
“The best presentation is to watch the game, then there can be no doubt.”
The Gunners hierarchy searched the market for a replacement if Wenger would opt to part ways with the club this summer – and Juventus boss Max Allegri was in pole position to take the job.
This has caused a rift within the Gunners camp and Wenger now wants to make sure that he has full boardroom support before committing his future to the club he joined in 1996.
He added: “It’s not about popularity, it’s about competence.”
“I worked until the last day of my contract. That is now, basically.”
The Arsenal players expect Wenger to confirm he will stay put.
Wenger has suffered a disastrous campaign this season and has failed to seal a top-four finish in the Premier League, for the first time in his two decade long stint at Arsenal.
This is the first season in 22 years that Arsenal have finished below arch rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
Wenger faced the heat after they suffered a humiliating 10-2 (on aggregate) defeat to European rivals Bayern Munich over the span of two-legs in the Champions League last-16 round, which saw them crashing out of the European competition.
A growing number of Arsenal fans got frustrated with the lack of ambition shown by the club under Arsene and #WengerOut signs began flowing in full glory.
It is quite evident now that the Frenchman is going through the worst run of his spell at Arsenal, both in the Premier League and in all other competitions.
But Arsenal fought back hard and earned seven wins out of their last eight games but this was not enough to seal a top-four finish – which means no Champions League football next season.
And now after lifting the 7th FA Cup title in his 21-year Gunners career, it seems that the club hierarchy wants him to stay.
Foottheball sources reveal that the Gunners are set to tie down Wenger but will introduce a new backroom structure.
The Gunners hierarchy believes that Wenger has been extremely loyal to the North London club and they are confident that with the right changes in the backroom structure they can again challenge for the title.
It is believed that the new set-up would see someone monitoring the contracts, logistics, compiling medical information to make the job easy for Wenger – but there is a very high possibility that a new director of football would not be introduced.
There might be some changes in the coaching staff despite Wenger being very loyal to his men. The Frenchman has also been vocal about not supporting the notion of bringing in a director of football at the North London club.
But it is believed that Wenger has compromised on certain fronts and now the club has made a real move to finalise the two-year deal which they had been offering since October.
