Arsene Wenger has reacted to suggestions he is being lined up by the English FA to succeed Glenn Hoddle as England manager by saying: "You would have to be a masochist to do it."
The Arsenal manager, preparing his team for tonight's clash with Dynamo Kiev at Wembley, is reported to be the FA choice to take the England job after Euro 2000.
But the man who first encouraged Hoddle to become a coach when he was his manager at French club AS Monaco said yesterday: "What can a job like that do for me?
"It is not like building something at a club because almost everything depends on having a super generation of players when you come in. If not, the manager has no chance. He cannot buy new ones.
"His influence is much less because as national coach you hardly ever have the players to work with and yet you are expected, in the big footballing countries, to win every game.
"If that doesn't happen you get hammered - and you don't know why. There is no pleasure in that."
Wenger, although admitting Hoddle no longer seeks his advice, said: "The FA must just keep showing patience and support for Glenn. You cannot let newspapers rule FA decisions.
"But being a national team manager I think you need to be a little bit masochistic. The FA have certainly made no approach to me although I once talked to them some years ago about the role of technical adviser and decided not to do it.
"I have enough worries at Arsenal but I'm committed to the club and it is the most important thing to me. It is hard to look ahead to the year 2000 but I have already said many times I'm ready to sign again for Arsenal until 2002.
"After that, if perhaps they get tired of me, I don't know what job I would do.
"But the role of national manager has no great appeal for me yet. There are so many pressures in the job and it is the same all over the world in the big football countries.
"For me, international level is below club level because, for instance, clubs like Barcelona can get players from all over the world and be better than the Spanish national team.
"Could Arsenal beat England? It's difficult to say but at the moment I'm not interested in England. I enjoy being involved with players on a daily basis too much - although perhaps one day I could even be fed up with that. Who can tell?"
Renewed speculation linking Wenger with a future role with England may be inspired by the fact that the Frenchman has still not signed the new Arsenal contract which has been on the table at Highbury since May.
He has always insisted it is a formality but now he admits: "There are one or two small details to be worked out - no major problems." Wenger's apparent hesitation could still be linked to the possible take-over bid at Highbury by Carlton Television, which has yet to develop further.
Meanwhile, Arsenal will be without their French midfield duo of Emmanuel Petit and Patrick Vieira for tonight's match. Petit is out with a hamstring injury he collected playing for France against Russia 10 days ago and Vieira has to serve a one-match ban after being booked against both Lens and Panathinaikos.
Stephen Hughes, Arsenal's former England under-21 star, will again deputise for Petit but Wenger is keeping quiet about who will replace Vieira. He may gamble on the potential of Spanish winger Alberto Mendez who has made just one Premiership start since his potential was spotted playing as an amateur in Germany.
Kiev's main threat will come from the impressive young strikers Sergiy Rebrov and Andriy Shevchenko.
Arsenal (possible, 4-4-2): Seaman; Dixon, Bould, Adams, Winterburn; Keown, Parlour, Hughes, Overmars; Bergkamp, Anelka.
Dynamo Kiev (probable, 5-3-2): Shovkovsky; Luzhny, Holovko, Vashchuk, Dmitrulin, Kaladze; Gusin, Kosovsky, Kalitvintsev; Shevchenko, Rebrov.
