Arsene Wenger turns down record-breaking Chinese Super League approach to remain as Arsenal manager
Arsene Wenger has rejected a lucrative offer from the Chinese Super League which would have made him the highest-paid manager in the world, according to reports.
Wenger’s Arsenal contract expires at the end of the current season and the Frenchman has said that he will announce whether he is staying on for a 22nd year at the club “in March or April”.
He further increased speculation over his future by insisting that he has no plans to retire and that he remains open to the idea of managing another club next season.
Wenger’s first preference is to remain in Europe, but a report in the Telegraph said that an unnamed Chinese club contacted Wenger’s representatives to offer the manager a stunning £30m-a-year net salary: more than twice that of the world’s current highest-paid manager, Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola.
That offer is significantly more than the current two-year contract extension offered to Wenger by Arsenal, which amounts to £10m-a-year.
However Wenger is said to have rejected the offer outright as he has little interest in joining the likes of Luiz Felipe Scolari, Manuel Pellegrini and André Villas-Boas in the cash-rich league.
Arsenal are believed to be growing increasingly concerned that Wenger will walk away, with the Independent last month revealing that senior figures at the club are still yet to receive an indication of his future plans.
Reports have claimed that Real Madrid is Wenger’s preferred destination. The Spanish giants have approached him in the past but look unlikely to part with Zinedine Zidane – who has remarkably lost just 5 of his 66 matches in charge of the club – anytime soon.
