Wenger ready for the long haul at Highbury

ARSENE WENGER is on the verge of committing his future to Arsenal until 2008 as he insisted Premiership managerial newcomers now have it much easier than his own baptism of fire.

Wenger will extend his stay at Highbury to almost 12 years when he finally signs a new contract in the next couple of weeks.

"It's not signed yet but it will be signed. It will take me until the end of this season and then three more seasons," he revealed.

Wenger, who this week marked the eighth anniversary of his first match as Arsenal boss - a 2-0 win at Blackburn - has since won two domestic doubles and gone an entire league season unbeaten.

However, he admitted: "I didn't think it would last eight years, never. In football, when you win a game, you only have the right to do the next one.

"How can you plan for eight years in football? It's like 50 years in normal life.

"I couldn't have made it to eight years at Arsenal without winning anything but I think I could've done more. You always remember the games you lost - FA Cup finals and European finals."

Then again, when he first arrived in north London in October 1996, he was greeted by scepticism, false slurs over his personal life and headlines of 'Arsene Who?'

No wonder, therefore, that he believes the likes of Jose Mourinho, Jacques Santini and Rafael Benitez now have a much easier task in settling into English football.

"It was much more hostile and hotter for me when I came to England than it has been for them," he said.

"I was completely unknown in England and I got some stories in my private life. They were not true but it was not easy for me to deal with that.

"We also had no previous foreign managers who had been successful. There was a lot of scepticism.

"But in the past eight years, England has changed a lot. It is much more open to international life than when I arrived."

Mourinho, Santini and Benitez have still been criticised for their perceived negative tactics since their arrivals.

Wenger nevertheless insisted: "Let's wait until the end of the season to draw any conclusions. At the moment, we have only played eight games.

"You must give credit to these people as they have only just come in and, at first, you try to stabilise your defensive side. I think you will see an evolution as the season goes on."

While other sides are finding goals hard to come by, Arsenal cannot stop scoring and could extend their unbeaten league run to 49 games if they avoid defeat against Aston Villa today. Wenger rejects observations that the Barclays Premiership is becoming too predictable.

"For me, it's not boring at all. We're just two points ahead of Chelsea and we can lose that any week. If there was such a difference between the teams, some would win 5-0 or 6-0 each week," he insisted.

Wenger has been a huge influence behind the style and panache which have been brought to a club that were themselves previously known as 'boring'.

He observed: "I have just tried to make my team play the football I love for eight years. It has worked quite well and I was very lucky to have found a club like Arsenal where I could do that.

"I don't know if I changed Arsenal; I just tried to push the club forward.

"If you take the team that played in my first year and the team that plays now, they're now younger and more international, but we are still trying to play the same kind of football.

"I'm lucky as I inherited great players and we have always found great players."

Wenger has indeed unearthed the likes of Nicolas Anelka, Cesc Fabregas and Kolo Toure, while reviving the careers of Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira.

He has also witnessed a change in himself over the past eight years, falling in love with English football.

"Look at the photos of me eight years ago and you will see a big change," he admitted.

"I will always spend part of my life in England, just for football reasons.

"I've been infected a bit by the English football virus. I would miss that anywhere that I went."