Maybe he was talking literally. Wenger keeps his family life off limits, but the cameras click on the rare occasions he attends a public function with his striking wife, Annie Brosterhous (57), a former schoolteacher near Monte Carlo and basketballer.

The couple live in the village of Totteridge with the daughter Leah, who will be 17 next month, and eschew the London social scene and restaurant circuit.

Wenger jealously protects his privacy, taking a stand — literal and metaphorical — on the steps of the old Highbury Stadium when scurrilous tabloid rumours about him were peddled by some journalists in the early days of his Arsenal reign.

“If you print anything, I will attack,” he challenged them. Nothing was published.

“He lives quietly,” says French writer Philippe Auclair. “Once the football is over, he likes to go home. Sometimes, if he needs to think, he will go for a long drive and listen to classical music.”

“He’s a very private man so, apart from his family, his whole life is dedicated to football,” agreed close friend and former Arsenal vice chairman Davis Dein. He told BBC Sport: “I always say the best car to buy second-hand is Arsene’s because it doesn’t go anywhere. Literally, it goes to the training ground and back, and to the stadium every couple of weeks. He’s absorbed with watching football and he’s got a phenomenal encyclopaedic knowledge of players.”