Football
ESPN staff 10y

Wenger targets players with desire

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has revealed that he looks for passion and drive when he is recruiting young players for the club.

At an Emirates Business Breakfast at the team hotel in New York, Wenger discussed the three characteristics that drive successful people, both inside and outside sport.

"There is the kid who battles with himself, the real champions, the guy who is driven by an inner motivation and has a consistent desire to be better because he has to be better," he said in quotes reported on Arsenal's official website.

"The second guy battles with others. He wants to show others he is better than them and he is ready to go out and show that. The third guy is a different case, he wants to be respected by others. 

"At the top level of competition you find these types of people. They have a mixture of the three characteristics but there is a dominant one there. I personally am inner driven. You want people who are consistently driven, you want ones like dogs who always want more. We try to identify that and try to make them stars."

Later, in a news conference ahead of the game against the New York Red Bulls this weekend, the French boss bemoaned the "impossible" schedule of preseason games after a World Cup and ahead of a new Premier League campaign.

"These training camps in the modern game are decided for commercial reasons and because of the extent of popularity of the club," he said. "We've never been to the States before and I was very happy to come to New York -- a city I love.

"But for purely football reasons, the best thing to do is stay and not travel too much because of the time you waste and the jet-lag you suffer is not ideal.

"This season is a post-World Cup year and very difficult because the time is very short between the final, which was on July 13, and the start of the new season on August 16.

"And compulsory, from FIFA, you are obliged to give four weeks holiday to the players, so I don't know how all that works together. It looks, to me, impossible."

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