Arsene sets the date

LONDON. — Arsene Wenger has dropped a massive hint he is planning to walk away from Arsenal in 2017. The Gunners boss spoke for the first time about how he wants to hand over the club in a healthy state to his successor.

The 65-year-old Frenchman’s current deal is up at end of next season and he told the club’s annual meeting: “I am resolute to commit absolutely until the last day of my contract to bring back big success to this club.

“And I want to leave it where it can do even better when I leave. That is for me very important, that I leave the club in the shape that the guy who comes after me can do better.”

Wenger will clock up two decades with the Gunners next October and he thought long and hard before agreeing a new three-year contract in May 2014.

The Gunners have not won the Premier League since 2004 and in a startling admission, Wenger confessed he would never again want to work under the financial restraints he had to from 2005, due to the £390m cost of the Emirates Stadium.

He said: “I must say the first years of career here was quite easy, from ‘96 to 2005. It was a period where it all went really easy, smooth and well.

“We were always dominating, mostly in league or the FA Cup. Then came the second period when we moved into this stadium.

“It became much more difficult because we face more competition and because we were under restricted finances and the target was to stay at the top of the league and to qualify for Champions League every year to repay our debt back.

“I must say we did it. Sometimes within a sceptical environment, and most of the time having to fight until the last minute of the last game of the Premier League.

“If you ask me to do it again I would say no, let somebody else do it because I will not take that gamble any more because it was so difficult.”

Wenger and the Arsenal board faced flak from one angry shareholder on Thursday who blasted the team for “embarrassing” home setbacks in the Champions League to Anderlecht, Monaco and Olympiakos in the past year, earning applause as he did so. — The Daily Star.