Wenger fears retirement from his ´addiction´ football

Arsene Wenger has admitted football is an “addiction” to him and he fears the day he has to retire.

The 66-year-old Arsenal boss is the longest-serving manager in English football, but is now entering the final year of his deal at the Emirates Stadium.

And, with the prospect of retirement on the horizon, Wenger has conceded he is not looking forward to the “emptiness” it will bring.

“It’s been my life and, honestly, I’m quite scared of the day [I retire],” he told Alan Curbishley for his new book, Game Changers.

“The longer I wait, the more difficult it will be and the more difficult it will be to lose the addiction.

“After [Alex Ferguson] retired and we played them over there [at Manchester United], he sent a message to me to come up and have a drink with him.

“I asked: ‘Do you miss it?’ He said: ‘Not at all.’ I didn’t understand that.

“It’s an emptiness in your life, especially when you’ve lived your whole life waiting for the next game and trying to win it.”

Wenger called time on his playing career in 1981, took his first managerial job in 1984 and has been at Arsenal since 1996, winning three Premier League titles.