Arsene Wenger: 'I love this club and I give my best for this club'

Arsenal manager insists he is the right man to take the club forward

Arsene Wenger (GETTY IMAGES)

Arsene Wenger has made an impassioned declaration that his is the right man to lead Arsenal forward.

The French manager is facing perhaps the most difficult spell of his 16-year rein of the Gunners, with the midweek defeat to League Two Bradford magnifying his side's shortcomings.

Without a trophy since 2005, each year sees the scrutiny on the 63-year-old increase. Arsenal fans at a recent match against Aston Villa chanted "you don't know what you're doing" while boos at the Emirates have become more and more common.

Yet despite the unrest, Wenger insists he is as hungry for success with the club as ever.

"My job is to be determined and give importance to what is important. What is important is I love football, I love this club and I give my best for this club. The rest, I cannot interfere with," he said ahead of Monday night's game against Reading.

"Believe me, I am highly focused on doing that and all the rest, that doesn't interfere with my thinking at all.

"I am very determined and very hungry and if I wasn't, I wouldn't sit in front of you."

Some fans have called for Wenger, whose contract expires in the summer of 2014, to step aside. Much of the criticism of the Arsenal manager relates to the power he yields at the club and his unwillingness to spend in the transfer market.

Wenger is a believer in nurturing players - a policy that worked wonders in the early stages of his time in north London but has since been copied by others, making it harder to identify young talent.

Major players have also been allowed to leave the club, including Csec Fabregas, Alex Song and Robin van Persie.

"I can understand that people criticise when the results are not as expected, but it looks like it has become the modern way to think," Wenger said.

"You say that 16 years can be a handicap, but as well it can be an advantage because you have experience, you love the club.

"If I sit here, it is because I have really shown how much I love this club.

"Also, you know you have gone through difficult periods before and you know how to turn it around."