Wenger ready for national duty after 2008

Arsene Wenger refused to be considered for the England manager’s job after being one of the first to be approached by the Football Association (FA) at the start of their hunt to replace Sven-Goran Eriksson. However, he did say he might consider taking the job if offered, after the 2008 European Championship.

Wenger was contacted by FA’s chief executive Brian Barwick, two months ago. Barwick had drawn up a long list of runners and riders for the job, which was headed by Wenger and Guus Hiddink, but Barwick did not even talk to Hiddink as his agent refused permission.

Wenger was willing to talk to Barwick but made it clear that he could not take on the England job and break his promise to Arsenal that he would be their manager when they moved to their new Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal have always made much of Wenger continuing to manage them and his contract runs until 2008.

However, Wenger did hold out some future hope for Barwick when he did not rule out the possibility of doing the job after the 2008 European Championship, should there be a vacancy.

“If tomorrow I am free and I am offered the England job I will, of course, take it. There is nothing that can persuade me to manage England at the moment because I am completely focused on Arsenal, but in the future you never know. My contract is up in 2008. After 2008, what will I do? I don’t know.”

There has always been speculation that the influence of David Dein, the Arsenal vice-chairman who is on the FA nominations committee, has ensured that Wenger has never been considered for England.

In 2000, his name was on the long list but no approach was made. It has also been assumed that, like Sir Alex Ferguson, Wenger would have emotional reasons for not being able to lead out England against his home country.

Although Barwick’s long list was drawn up before Dein joined the nominations committee ?? he was a late addition ?? it is clear that if Wenger had said yes to Barwick he would have been interviewed by the committee and almost certainly presented to the full FA board.

Instead, after the fiasco with Phil Scolari, the FA board will on Thursday be asked to rubber-stamp Steve McClaren. But the fact that Wenger may be open to taking the job in 2008 means the FA might consider offering McClaren the job for only two years.

The last time they did that was with Terry Venables, who was appointed in 1994 only to take England through to Euro 96.