Football: Potential managers will be put off by frequent sackings, says Wenger

Arsenal's manager Arsene Wenger points during their English Premier League soccer match against Manchester City at The Emirates Stadium in London on March 29, 2014. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says the quality of football managers and coaches
Arsenal's manager Arsene Wenger points during their English Premier League soccer match against Manchester City at The Emirates Stadium in London on March 29, 2014. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says the quality of football managers and coaches will diminish in future if sackings continue at the present rate. -- FILE PHOTO: REUTERS

LONDON (REUTERS) - Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says the quality of football managers and coaches will diminish in future if sackings continue at the present rate.

He told reporters at the club's training ground on Friday that new talent would be deterred from coming into the profession because there was so little security.

Speaking in the week that Manchester United's David Moyes became the 10th Premier League manager to lose his job this season, Wenger said: "I think it's just part of what the modern game is now. There is no time available for people to do their job and that is a big threat for our game.

"The average (job) expectancy of an English professional club (manager) at the moment is 11 months, and that is quite unstable. If you want quality people in any job, you need to give them time to develop and to become good, or people with the quality will not come into our job any more.

"Every guy who is married, has a family, will have a big hesitancy before he goes into that game. That means the quality of the coaching and the quality of the managing is under threat, because it will not attract quality people any more."

Since Alex Ferguson was succeeded by Moyes 10 months ago, Wenger, who took over at Arsenal in 1996, has been by far the longest-serving manager in England.

"The trend is that rotation will become quicker and quicker," he said. "If you get to a point where you sack your manager with every defeat, the guy who comes in will lose games as well. So that trend will become quicker and quicker.

"We are living in a society now where it is every time the quick intelligence is dominating the slow intelligence. That means every time after the game it is quick sanction, quick judgment, and there is no distance any more with the event.

"The solution is that the clubs internally will need to be much stronger than before, to resist that immediate pressure. The strengths, the belief, the vision inside the clubs, will be tested much more than before. And the strengths needed inside the clubs will need to be much better."

Wenger said club captain Thomas Vermaelen could be back for Monday's home match against Newcastle United, in which Arsenal hope to consolidate fourth place ahead of Everton, who are one point behind and play at Southampton on Saturday.

But there has been no progress in talks with French international defender Bacary Sagna, whose contract expires at the end of the season. "The ball is in his camp and he needs to come back to us," Wenger said.

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