Arsene Wenger has one final task when he collects his belongings next Thursday from the London Colney training ground that he designed and then presided over for two decades.

“I have 20,000 trees out there and I saw everyone like that [pointing to the ground],” he said. “They are now massive. I will greet every one of them before I leave and say ‘thank you’.”

Three years was what Wenger thought would be the absolute best-case scenario for him at Arsenal when he arrived in 1996. That would not even have taken him into this millennium but, after a tenure spanning four Prime Ministers, the moment of departure has arrived. Home, he now says, is England, even if his local geography still leaves something to be desired.

“I lived here for 22 years, my daughter has spent her whole life here and she is going to university here,” he says. “I feel at home. I like London. It’s not far but I honestly don’t know how you get to the centre. My journey was Totteridge to London Colney.”

The only other route he has perfected is down to Highbury and the adjacent Emirates Stadium and, as he reminisced this week for one last time, the depth of feeling for that all-conquering first home was obvious.