LONDON, Sept 30: Arsene Wenger is one of the world’s great managers and his future at Arsenal is assured for as long as he wants to stay, the club’s owner Stan Kroenke said in a rare interview on Friday.

The 64-year-old American billionaire, whose portfolio of teams includes the St Louis Rams in the NFL, the Denver Nuggets in the NBA and the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, has also been Arsenal’s majority shareholder since earlier this year.

Nicknamed “Silent Stan” by the British media, he finally spoke in depth for the first time since he started buying into Arsenal four years ago with an interview in the Daily Telegraph.

Despite the club’s poorest start to a season since 1953, and some fans calling for the 61-year-old Wenger to leave, Kroenke gave the Frenchman a stunning endorsement, 15 years to the day he was appointed manager.

“Arsene is one of my favourite people I have met in the last 20 years. He is a great person and I love the way he handles himself. He is one of the great managers,” he said.

Asked if he could stay at the club for another decade, Kroenke replied: “With Arsene, it his decision and only he will know that.” Arsenal have improved in recent weeks but they have not won any silverware since the FA Cup in 2005 and lost two of their most influential players in the off-season when Cesc Fabregas joined Barcelona and Samir Nasri went to Manchester City.

Kroenke, said the decision to allow Fabregas and Nasri to leave was Wenger’s, who believed, particularly as far as the former was concerned, that it was right to let him to return to his boyhood club after they had courted him for three years.—Reuters