Arsene Wenger has agreed on a new contract with Arsenal that will keep him in charge of the English club until 2011, British media reported on Thursday.
Arsenal would not confirm or deny the reports that the Frenchman was about to sign a three-year contract extension worth around ?4 million (US$8.1 million a year).
But Wenger had told Arsenal fans last weekend to expect an announcement on his future by yesterday and all his recent statements have pointed towards him extending his stay in north London.
Speculation that the 57-year-old might leave Arsenal had been rampant in the wake of the April resignation of vice-chairman David Dein, and the subsequent summer sale of Thierry Henry to Barcelona.
Dein, who brought Wenger to London in 1996, is a good friend of the manager and worked closely with him on transfer deals.
Wenger, however, said last weekend that Dein's departure had not affected his relationship with the club's hierarchy and would not be a barrier to him signing a new deal.
"What I think when I'm negotiating the deal is whether I have the freedom to work the way I want to," he said. "I always had that with David Dein and, since David has gone, I still have it."
The Frenchman has also been encouraged by Arsenal's positive start to the season and the way his squad have coped without Henry.
"Since the beginning of the season something has been happening in this team," he said. "They fight for each other, they have a great togetherness and love for the game."
INJURY TURMOIL: Despite stunning French Open champions Paolini and Errani to advance, Chan was forced to pull out after her partner’s tearful women’s singles defeat Last year’s mixed doubles champions Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Poland’s Jan Zielinski on Monday crashed out of the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, leaving the Taiwanese star focused on pursuing a fifth women’s doubles title in London, while a partner injury forced compatriot Chan Hao-ching to give up on her doubles campaign. Hsieh and Zielinksi, who last year also won the Australia Open title, narrowly lost their opening set 7-6 (9/7), before Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani stunned the former champions 6-3 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The Taiwanese-Polish duo had been dominant in the first two
HSIEH ADVANCES: In the women’s doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei was to play in the second round last night, but Taiwan’s Ray Ho exited in the men’s doubles It is more than 10 years since Grigor Dimitrov reached his sole Wimbledon semi-final and back then it still seemed a reasonable bet that the Bulgarian once dubbed “Baby Federer” would win a Grand Slam title. There were semi-final runs at the US Open and Australian Open after that, but it has never quite happened and despite him still being ranked No. 21, it most likely never will. Dimitrov, 34, remains one of the most stylish players on the circuit though, with his elegant single-handed backhand and smooth all-court game a rare reminder of how tennis was before the power merchants turned
Real Madrid’s FIFA Club World Cup quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund had taken three crazy turns during nine minutes of second-half stoppage time when Marcel Sabitzer chested the ball and sent a right-footed volley toward Thibaut Courtois’ post. Courtois leapt to his right, extended the long arm on his 2m frame and just managed to get his gloved fingertips on the ball, knocking it down. Courtois hit the ground as the ball bounded up. He looked skyward, planted his right hand to regain his balance, grabbed the ball with both hands on the second bounce and fell onto it with his chest. Sabitzer turned
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus’ four-year suspension for doping, ruling that her positive test for a banned substance was caused by kissing her then-boyfriend, American fencer Race Imboden. Thibus, a silver medalist in team foil at the Tokyo Games, had tested positive for ostarine, a prohibited muscle-building substance, during a competition in Paris in January last year. However, CAS concluded there was no intentional wrongdoing, finding it scientifically plausible that repeated kissing over several days with Olympic medalist Imboden — who was taking ostarine at the time — led to accidental contamination. The court
RSS