Arsene Wenger turned down the chance to manage Fulham
According to reports from the UK this morning, former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger turned the chance to manage Fulham.
Former Leicester City coach Claudio Ranieri was confirmed on Tuesday as Fulham boss after Slavisa Jokanovic was told on Tuesday morning that his services were no longer required at Craven Cottage.
The Mirror Sport reports that Fulham indicated their interest in the Frenchman and even promised him substantial funds in the transfer market to further strengthen his squad which already boasts of very decent players like Aleksandar Mitrovic, Jean Michael Seri and former Chelsea attacker Andre Schurrle.
According to the report, Wenger refused to take the job because he still has a lot of respect for Arsenal, where he spent 22 years, and has vowed not to take any top flight managerial job in England.
Fulham owner Shahid Khan is a Pakistani-American billionaire and businessman whose net worth is over $7 billion dollars, and he is ranked 70th on the Forbes 400 richest Americans and 221st richest person in the world, so it is no surprise why this could have been a tempting job for the Frenchman to make his mark again in English top flight football.
Claudio Ranieri, who won the Premier League title with Leicester City in 2016 after his team was considered "huge underdogs" ,has reiterated that Fulham boasts of very good players in the squad and that their position on the league table does not fully reflect the potential in the team.
He said, “The objective at Fulham should never be to merely survive in the Premier League. We must at all times be a difficult opponent and should expect to succeed. This Fulham squad has exceptional talent that is contrary to its position in the table."
Fulham has spent about £100million on players and promised Wenger more of the same if he put pen to paper on a deal with them, but it was not to be.