Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger becomes Europe's longest-serving manager

Tom Dutton6 March 2016

Arsene Wenger has become Europe's longest-serving football manager after Portadown boss Ronnie McFall stepped down on Saturday.

McFall resigned as boss at the Northern Irish club after more than 29 years at the helm.

The 69-year-old was appointed in December 1986 - six weeks after Sir Alex Ferguson joined Manchester United - and won four league titles during his reign.

The Ports, though, were sent crashing out of the Irish Cup at the quarter-final stage by Lurgan Celtic on Saturday which prompted McFall to stand down.

North London Derby In Pictures

1/22

It means Wenger, who took over at Highbury in September 1996, takes the record just months before he is due to mark 20 years with the north London club.

Speaking before he signed a new three-year deal after the Gunners' FA Cup success in 2014, Wenger said of how long he would like to stay at Emirates Stadium: "Forever? Certainly.

"Honestly, I would love to be here forever because that would mean I would be immortal! I'm not naive enough to believe that.

"What I would like to do as long as I am here is give my best for this club because I love this club, of course.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in