Tag Archives: RIVALS

Wenger Reveals The Quality He Admires Most In Sir Alex Ferguson

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The pair were rivals during Arsenal’s title battles with Manchester United but the Frenchman has revealed that he keeps in touch with his former adversary

Arsene Wenger admits the quality he admires in Sir Alex Ferguson is the former Manchester Unitedmanager’s ability to “reinvent himself”.

The duo were long-time rivals during United’s title battles with Arsenal but the Frenchman has revealed that he remains in contact with Ferguson, who won 38 trophies in his time at Old Trafford.

“For me, at this level, Ferguson is an example,” the Arsenal manager said in an interview with L’Equipe’s Sport & Style Magazine.

“For starters, he always knew how to reinvent himself, how to evolve. He did not stand still in success. It is a quality of his that I appreciate. He always knew how to challenge himself. Even if he did it instinctively.

“But he had other passions. He liked horses. Wine. He knew red wine better than I did. Recently, I met with him and I said to him: “Alex, do you not miss it?”. He responded to me “not at all”. I was at that moment disappointed and comforted. It gives me a reason to hope for myself.”

When asked about the prospect of retirement and whether he had a passion outside of football, Wenger replied: “No. That is where my natural anxiety comes from.

“I am not Ferguson. I do not have a substitute and I am not interested in looking back either. Like writing a book about what on my experiences. I suffer when I see former players who come back to see me and who are no longer fully happy.

“To be presented as Mr X, the former Arsenal player, and not for what he is today is painful. Having to be what you once were is a form of suffering. I hope, in my after-life [life after football], that I can be something other than the former manager of Arsenal. Coach kids. Be useful.”

South Sudan’s Rival Leaders Meet As Fighting Continues

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South Sudan’s warring rival leaders held face-to-face talks in Kenya but failed to make progress as fighting continued on the ground this weekend.

President Salva Kiir and his sacked deputy Riek Machar met in Nairobi as part of the latest peace push led by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, after previous efforts in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Arusha, Tanzania, failed.

“My two brothers held five hours of face-to-face talks,” Kenyatta said in a statement, adding it was an important step to “build confidence and trust between them.”

Kenyatta sought to put a positive spin on the direct meeting, the first in more than four months. He said “important issues” had been “identified and isolated” and that Kiir and Machar “reaffirmed their commitment to security peace for their people”.

At least seven ceasefires have been signed and broken during successive rounds of bad-faith talks that began soon after the new civil war started in December 2013.

There were no concrete outcomes or commitments from the weekend’s talks, and rebel spokesman Mabior Garang said the talks “failed to bear any tangible results”.

Even as the Nairobi talks were underway, a key regional capital in South Sudan reportedly changed hands once again as a renegade tribal warlord attacked the town of Malakal and declared his allegiance to Machar’s rebels.

A rebel statement said that ex-government general Johnson Olony — accused by aid agencies of forcibly recruiting hundreds of child soldiers — was in “full control” of the ruined town of Malakal, the state capital of Upper Nile, but the army dismissed the claim.

Aid workers in the town confirmed heavy fighting began on Saturday. The town is the gateway to the country’s last remaining major oil fields and has been repeatedly fought over during the 18-month long conflict.

Civil war began when Kiir accused Machar of planning a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings across the country that has split the poverty-stricken, landlocked country along ethnic lines.

Two-thirds of the country’s 12 million people need aid, according to the UN and one-sixth have fled their homes.

The UN children’s agency said in a report this month that warring forces have carried out horrific crimes against children, including castration, rape and tying them together before slitting their throats. Others were thrown into burning houses.