‘I showed commitment in tough times amid job offers’ – Wenger slams angry Arsenal fans

Arsene Wenger has attacked Arsenal fans for a lack of loyalty after claiming to have put aside his own ambitions to help rescue the club’s move to the Emirates.

The Arsenal manager suggested he had ignored a host of suitors – understood to include Real Madrid, Manchester City and Barcelona – to fulfil a pledge to the institutions financing the Gunners’ move to a new stadium that he would oversee the change.

“When we built the stadium the banks demanded that I signed for five years,” he said. “I did it. Do you want me to tell you how many clubs I turned down during that period? I think I have shown that I am committed.”

In fact, throughout his near two-decade tenure at the club, Wenger has never committed his future to Arsenal for as much as four years in advance, but in September 2007, 15 months after a £210m bond issue in June 2006 just before the move to the Emirates, Wenger did finally put pen to paper on a new deal until June 2011.

“The banks wanted the technical consistency to guarantee that we have a chance to pay back,” Wenger said. “I did commit and I stayed and under very difficult circumstances.

“So for me to come back today and on top of top of that they reproach me for not having won the championship during that period, it is a bit overboard. I accept criticism. I think that it is a bit too far.”

Three fans groups have planned protests for Saturday’s game, complaining the club has become “stale” in the 12 years since they last won the title. Placards will be raised after 12 minutes and again 12 minutes from time.

But Wenger claimed fans were being “manipulated” by a few “big egos” and further suggested the negativity had cost Arsenal vital points in home games.

“Some groups of people try to manipulate our fans, and I believe apart from an agenda, a personal agenda, a big ego, there’s not a lot behind it,” he said.

“In football you go down very quickly and come up very slowly. We have to stick together. We lost the championship at home against the lower teams, but we played at home in a very difficult climate.”