Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, has said that any attempt by Real Madrid to try and get him to manage the Spanish giants would be a waste of time.

Madrid were knocked out of the Champions League this week and rumours immediately started circulating that there would be a change of manager because of the European exit.

Real are a club who have spent a large amount of money on a few lucky and key players. This money brings with it a tremendous amount of pressure and it’s pressure, which means the current boss, Pellegrini, is on borrowed time.

However, Wenger said: “Leave me alone. I am always going to stay to the end of my contract and I am going (to stay at Arsenal) until 2011. There is no way I am going to break it.”

“For me, it is the worst possible moment to come back on that. At the moment my focus is fully on Hull City (on Saturday) they may be less glamorous than Real Madrid, but they are much more important in my life at the moment.”

“It shows that £240million does not necessarily buy you the Champions League and that in Europe you have no guarantee of success. If you can spend that kind of money every year, you will get there in the end, but at the moment it is difficult for them to take.”

“In the last five years we have been in the final, a semi-final and two quarter-finals in England we don’t rate that as an achievement any more because we are used to it, but that consistency is not easy to achieve.”

There were heavy rumours some years back that Wenger would switch to the Spanish club when his contract ran out at Arsenal and now the same story is starting to appear at a similar sort of time.

There is no reason at all to doubt Wenger’s words. He clearly is going to stay at Arsenal for a number of reasons. The rumours will carry on but there is nothing on them and it would take a special deal to get Wenger to say otherwise.

Wenger is Mr. Arsenal. The entire team plays the way he wants them to and he is at a club where he is the top dog and has the final word on pretty much every thing.

If he did go to Real then he would also be contradicting his own transfer policy and emphasis on bringing players up through a youth system in order to get them to play to their potential.

Real would demand that Wenger spend big money on big players in order to get success and this is something that the Frenchman just does not do.

The only job that would probably get him to leave the Gunners would be the French international job and he would not take that offer until he had won another title or Champions League with Arsenal.

Arsene Wenger says he is hoping to draw an English team and get some revenge during the quarter final stage of the Champions League.

His Arsenal side romped to a 5-0 win over Porto last night and showed why they are still the best football side in Europe when they decide to get the ball down and play football.

Niklas Bendtner scored a hat trick as the team did not look as though there were any hang overs from the first leg defeat they suffered on a long and miserable night in the Portuguese city.

Wenger said: “I have a funny feeling that maybe it is good for us to play an English team. We have not done well against Chelsea and not done well against United this year, and it will be a good opportunity to show that we can do it against them.”

“It’s a good opportunity if we get them to show we can do well. If I had a choice I would say yes. If we get them we cannot do worse than we did in the championship, we can only do better.”

“It shows first of all how quickly football changes, but I hope it will not give him too much confidence. I’m happy for him because he had a good game on Saturday but missed chances, and today he had less chances and scored three goals.”

“It’s good for his confidence, but I hope it gives him the desire to work even harder. His confidence level is always stable. He has the size and presence we need. We’re usually a short team, so someone with size is important, offensively and defensively.”

Arsenal are a very difficult side to try and predict when they play in Europe. They are capable of performances like this but they are equally capable of falling short when teams work them out and counter attack their style of play.

Wenger may say that he wants to play an English side but deep down there will probably be a small part of him that hopes to avoid the possibility. For now they will bask in this latest glory.

Bendtner added: “Sometimes it’s one of those days [against Burnley] and today I put it right. I’m happy with my hat-trick, but tomorrow we move on.”

“It will give us a lot of confidence. We want to win the Champions League. It’s something we haven’t done. We scored all our chances today, which is very positive.”

Arsenal are still fighting for glory in the Premier League as well as Europe and there may come a point in the near future where the club have to focus on trying to win just one.

Their squad is not big enough to win both of these competitions and Porto were one of the weaker teams left in the running to lift the Champions League trophy.

Arsenal need to stay grounded after this win because it will be easy to get carried away with the score the way it was.

Its like that old saying, isn’t it – ‘if you wanna make an omelette you gotta break some eggs.’ Unfortunately for Aaron Ramsey, football is the omelette and the broken egg shell is his mangled right leg. The story was all too familiar for Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, who must be seriously close to serving up that omelette by now!

After Abou Diaby’s ankle was horrifically crunched by Sunderland’s Dan Smith in a Premier League match in 2006, Brazilian-born striker Eduardo went one better in 2008 with a broken left fibula and an open dislocation of his left ankle through Birmingham’s Martin Taylor’s high challenge.

‘Horrendous and unacceptable’ were the words Arsene Wenger used to label the tackle from Stoke defender Ryan Shawcross which fractured Ramsey’s tibia and fibula, leaving the Welshman’s leg dangling at a freak angle.

Continuing the every-two-year trend, last week was the 19-year-old’s turn. It’s an image no one likes to see in sport, particularly when the victim is a teenager with the promise of midfielder Ramsey. The players were visibly disturbed, Ramsey visibly in agony, and God knows what must have been going through Eduardo’s mind as he entered the pitch as a substitute soon after.

However, to name the tackle which inflicted the leg break ‘horrendous and unacceptable’ is way off the mark from Wenger and any notions of post-match frustration shining through on that were quashed when the Frenchman stood by his quotes later in the coming week.

Shawcross was late, but this is football – late tackles happen as often as a mistimed pass or a misplaced shot, it’s just a part of the game which has been cruel to the Gunners in the past few years.

If the tackle was ‘unacceptable’ then what would have been acceptable from Shawcross? To pull out when he realised he wasn’t going to get there and risk the wrath of Tony Pulis in the dressing room after? James Beattie certainly wouldn’t have hung around for that. The tackle was clumsy but ‘horrendous’ it was not.

Wenger’s follow up comments were tentative, though: “I admire a great technical tackle as much as a creative pass,” Wenger told skysports.com. But if he really admires a good tackle as much as a good pass, then surely he can accept that a bad tackle is as inevitable as a bad pass. It’s typical of Wenger to buck the trend with opinion on this issue, but the trend of horrific injuries to his players should now stop through divine right alone.

Tackling hard is always a risk but risks are what make sports great and the day going in hard is absent from football is the day the sport is no longer a man’s game.

Former England player and current legend, Chris Waddle, has said that Theo Walcott does not understand the game enough at international level.

Waddle is speaking ahead of the World Cup this summer and there is still a big chance for someone in the side to step in and make the right and left wing positions their own.

Waddle was an England regular who played in some of the toughest club and country competitions in the world. He will know better than most the qualities needed to read the game at the highest level.

He said: “People keep saying he’s young but Wayne Rooney understood the game at 16, 17. I’ve never seen any difference in Walcott since he was at Southampton and broke into the team at a very young age.”

“I’ve never seen him develop. He just doesn’t understand the game for me – where to be running, when to run inside a full back, when to just play a one-two. It’s all off the cuff. I just don’t think he’s got a football brain and he’s going to have problems. Let’s be honest, good defenders would catch him offside every time. I just don’t know whether he studies the game, learns the game, or what. He’s at a great club where they play fantastic football week-in, week-out, and I’m just surprised he’s never developed his game.”

“I’m surprised Walcott was in the squad. He doesn’t play a lot of football, he hasn’t done anything. he hasn’t done anything for a long time and I think Croatia was a one-off. I just think he’s got a lot to learn. I’ve been more impressed by Adam Johnson at Manchester City than Theo Walcott.”

Waddle’s comments about Johnson at Manchester City will be echoed by many people within the current football community. It is a little strange how a player who was set to join Real Madrid at one point cannot be good enough to play for his own country.

Walcott is a decent player but the point is he still has a lot to prove on the international stage. Johnson needs a chance and he could be a fresher and surprising choice for England’s World Cup squad this summer.

It is a nice problem for Fabio Capello to have and the boss will be hoping that competition for places continues to stay fierce. The one thing he will not want to happen is a spurt of injuries, which threaten to dent the spine of the side.

You cannot be a bad player if you can score an away hat trick in international football. Walcott needs to work hard and remember that he has a top line manager in Arsene Wenger to go to advice for at Arsenal.

It’s difficult to call all of the midfield positions for England’s squad, which will go to South Africa in June. Walcott and Johnson may well end up both going. Watch this space over the coming months.

Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, has had time to reflect on his comments over the weekend and it seems as though he is sticking to them.

Wenger reacted furiously to a challenge from Stoke player, Ryan Shawcross, which left gifted young midfielder, Aaron Ramsey, with a badly broken right leg. Shawcross was shown a straight red card but Wenger believes the problem runs much deeper.

Wenger says he is afraid that many Premier League teams are not able to cope with the talent, pace and movement of his younger players. The only way teams apparently deal with this is to be very physical in all aspects of the game.

Wenger said: “We had today in midfield Nasri, Fàbregas, Ramsey and Eboué. Up front Bendtner is 22 years old. What these guys do, at that age, is absolutely remarkable, but of course if you destroy them, they might not be football players.”

“What is most terrible for me is Ramsey starts his career with a double [break] and you never know what kind of consequences this will have on his physical side of the game and his psychological side. It’s just scandalous.”

“It will be of course tight to the end, but it gives us one more reason to be strong mentally and to be united and to fight until the end and to do it for him.”

Shawcross said after the incident: “There was absolutely no malice in the challenge. I would never, ever go out to hurt a fellow professional. I am deeply upset that Aaron has suffered such a bad injury and my thoughts are with him. I would like to send him my best wishes for a speedy recovery.”

The break on Ramsey’s leg was so bad that TV producers banned controllers from showing replays of the tackle during live play. It also prompted a number of Arsenal players to physically turn away from their teammate who was in obvious stress and pain.

Arsenal’s captain, Cesc Fabregas, said that the number of career threatening injuries he has witnessed during his time at Arsenal is far too high and also says that it cannot be just coincidence that Arsenal players are the ones getting hurt on a regular basis.

Ramsey is only very young so he should not be worried about the prospect of never being able to play the game again. His injury will heal a lot quicker than were he of an older age.

Arsenal have hinted that they may try and get Shawcross’ ban extended for the severity of the tackle and the incident but it would prove fruitless. The injury has taken place now and all that Ramsey can do is listen to the best medical advice and be sensible with his rehabilitation over the coming days and months.

Thoughts are with him and surely everyone in the football community wishes him a speedy recovery. It would be a shame if something like this ended the career of someone so talented.

Arsenal player, Emanuel Eboue, says that he is looking forward to playing Stoke City possibly more than any other club this season.

Stoke are one of the big surprise packages of recent times, have a great set of supporters and one of the most under rated managers in the entire country in Tony Pulis.

Arsene Wenger will take a gifted group of players into the game and Eboue says it will be interesting to play against the less subtle play Stoke are well known for. It is a clash of football cultures and should produce a great match.

The midfield player said: “We don’t want to change our performances – we will always try to play our way. We must be patient, clever and focused on Saturday and remember that it will be very difficult for them as well as us. We lost against them before but we have to go there to win.”

“It is always like this and not just in this league. Even in the Champions League we play teams who always try to kick us because they know we are so quick with the ball. We are very technical and that’s why we get kicked but we must play our football.”

“It doesn’t matter if they kick us, we must do our thing and always believe in ourselves. Many people say Arsenal are not strong enough. They say we have got too many young players but we play our own football. We don’t like to give the ball away and want to play on the attack.”

“We need to win a trophy this season for our club. It has been such a long time since we did something. To be a good family, we must win something together. For me, I don’t think Fabregas, me or William [Gallas] will leave this club. We have still got contracts with Arsenal. We are Arsenal players and I think we all want to win something together.”

Arsenal are still in with a very good shout of winning something this season. It has been a long time since they last lifted a trophy and if they were to snatch the Premier League away from Chelsea or Manchester United then it could be considered Arsene Wenger’s biggest ever coup.

The main problem for the North London team has been injuries. They are missing a number of key players who are important to first team plans and when they get all of these players back, it will be the business end of the season.

Eboue added: “If I wanted to leave this club, I would have done it a long time ago but not now. We want to score very quickly, that’s why we forget to defend plays, that’s why when we play we concede some easy goals. But now I think we are stronger than before.”

It is a hard game to call because Stoke have come through bigger games with their heads held high. Arsenal may just nick it with the extra quality.

Jose Mourinho, manager of Inter Milan, has responded to the number of jibes aimed at him by Chelsea boss, Carlo Ancelotti.

Chelsea and Inter meet this evening in a huge Champions League contest and the two managers have been locked in a war of words over the last couple of days in the build up to the match.

Mourinho has said that the only reason Chelsea are still a heavy weight of the football world is because of him while Ancelotti has focused his criticism on the inadequacies of the Inter squad and their Mourinho’s insistence on focusing on everyone but himself.

Mourinho said: “If Ancelotti says that, it’s because he knows, or because somebody told him. Or because he belongs to the clan. I just do my job. I’m here to play a game of football.”

“Ashley Cole at this moment has to take care of himself and take care of his recovery. I called him a couple of days ago because I care about him. I wished him a very, very quick recovery. Because I like him very, very much, my advice to him is to stay in England.”

“I watched Ashley Cole play until the moment he had his injury, and he played superbly. If he has problems, for sure they are not on the pitch. I think Ancelotti must give him advice, his family must give him advice and he must think for himself, but if he really wants my advice, I think he should stay in England.”

“The most beautiful thing in football for a coach is the passion and respect of his players, and the supporters of his own club. That happens with me all the time, at Porto, Chelsea and Inter. That makes me proud. What Didier keeps saying about myself makes me proud, but I know what will happen tomorrow. I know that tomorrow he will break his legs for Chelsea.”

Inter stand a very good chance of progressing into the next stage of the Champions League but it will be a lot more difficult for them. Chelsea are the strongest team in England at the moment and all of the pre-match stories will fire them up.

Mourinho is an expert in knowing how to push all of the buttons in the managers of teams his side are about to face. He did it for a long time in England and got away with it for a long time in England.

It is impossible to count the number of times he forced the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger to come out in the media with outrageous comments in the build up to a Premier League game.

Both sides are on top form and both sides will want to win more than any thing else. What it will come down to is who is up for the game more. Mourinho may just edge the tie on tactics but Ancelotti is no mug.