Wenger to get new deal

Arsene Wenger is set to be offered a new contract with Arsenal despite the club's seven-year trophy drought, Gunners chief executive Ivan Gazidis hinted on Thursday.
Wenger has been unable to find a solution to Arsenal's fall from grace since they won their last trophy, the 2005 FA Cup, and a host of top players, including Robin van Persie and Cesc Fabregas, have left the club in frustration at their failure to compete for major honours.
It is eight years since Arsenal were last crowned English champions and Wenger has increasingly seemed to settle for qualifying for the Champions League via a top-four finish in the Premier League rather than battling Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea for first place.
But Gazidis is adamant the 62-year-old, who is under contract until 2014, remains the right man for the job.
"It's not a sense of sentimentalism, not a reward for our services, it's a belief that we have an incredible manager who loves this club and is the best man to lead us forward," Gazidis told The Daily Mirror.
"We're really confident about the direction that the club is heading. We're coming through strongly and we believe we're really well placed.
"We hope and believe that Arsene will be a part of that as we move forward. He is written into our DNA."
Despite his recent struggles, Wenger is regarded as Arsenal's greatest ever manager, having led the club to three Premier League titles and four FA Cups since arriving in north London in 1996.
And Gazidis insisted that Wenger's impact on Arsenal has been so significant that his eventual successor will have to hold a similar footballing philosophy to the Frenchman.
"The values that Arsene has brought to the club, together with the values the club had before Arsene, are what will inform us -- and I don't want to give any indication that this is happening -- and give us the framework as to who might take over from him in the longer term," Gazidis said.
Wenger, who has reportedly turned down top jobs with the likes of Real Madrid and England to remain with Arsenal in the past, responded to Gazidis's glowing tribute with a more cautious stance.
He claimed he will always be an "Arsenal man" but is in no hurry to open talks over a new contract with such a busy schedule of matches coming up, starting with Saturday's clash against Southampton.
"I have two years to go. What is important for me is Southampton and I think I have shown my commitment to this club in the past," Wenger said.
"At the moment I am not in the mood to think about the long-term future. We want to do well this season, that's all.
"I am an Arsenal man. I think I have always shown that. I have to consider if I do well or not. If I don't do well, I have to consider my future.
"I have been at the club long enough to have confidence in the people I work with, but I will assess my own performances and then make a decision. At the moment we are not there.
"Two years is a long time in my job. I just want to do well for the club as long as I can and accept all the rest.
"I have to consider that at my age, you always have to assess if you have the fitness, the desire, the commitment that this job demands."