Wenger wants to stay on at Arsenal - reports
Beleaguered Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has decided to stay at the club, according to British media reports yesterday.
The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mirror said Wenger will inform Arsenal's board he wants to extend his contract, which expires at the end of the season.
West Bromwich Albion manager Tony Pulis also said Wenger told him he intended to stay on after Arsenal's 3-1 defeat at The Hawthorns on Saturday.
"I'll be surprised if he goes," Pulis said after Saturday's game, as revealed in yesterday's newspapers.
Asked why he thought Wenger would stay, Pulis replied: "Because he told me."
Wenger, 67, has come under fire from fans after Arsenal were thrashed by Bayern Munich in the Champions League and slipped out of the Premier League's top four.
Supporters renewed calls for him to step down during and after the defeat at West Brom, with some holding up "WENGER OUT" banners.
Speaking after the game, Wenger said he had made up his mind about his future and would make his intentions public "very soon".
Arsenal have not commented on the reports on the future of Wenger, who won seven trophies in his first nine seasons but has won only two FA Cups in the 12 years since.
But the club have denied the claim that they have approached Borussia Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel as a possible Wenger replacement.
"That's not true," an Arsenal spokesman told Germany's Sky Sports News.
Wenger, Arsenal's manager since 1996, is believed to have been offered a new two-year contract.
The defeat at West Brom was Arsenal's fourth in five league games and left them in sixth place in the Premier League table, six points below the Champions League places with two games in hand.
They recently lost 10-2 on aggregate to Bayern in the Champions League, going out in the Round of 16 for the seventh season running. - AFP
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