Arsene Wenger insists he did his “best job” as Arsenal boss during the barren years following the club’s move to the Emirates Stadium.
The Frenchman, who will take charge of his last game for the Gunners at Huddersfield on Sunday after almost 22 years in charge, won three Premier League titles when the north London club were based at Highbury.
But he believes his most impressive achievement was to keep Arsenal competitive when the financial constraints hit home after the move to the 60,000-capacity stadium in 2006.
Wenger was given a fond farewell from the Emirates Stadium last week.
Asked during his final pre-match press conference about his most cherished memory at Arsenal, the 68-year-old replied: “Maybe my first title here because I came completely unknown and in my first full year I won the championship.
“But I would say personally from 2006 to 2015 it was certainly the period where I needed to be the strongest and did the best job.
“Because to accept to commit to five years when you build the stadium to work with restricted resources and keep the club in a position where we can pay our debts back, I personally feel I did my best job in that period. Not the most glamorous maybe, but the most difficult.”
When he first arrived at Highbury in 1996, many questioned the board for the decision to appoint a manager with no experience of English football.
But Wenger revolutionised the game, delivering the double in his first full season before achieving the same feat in 2001-02.
It was the 2003-04 season when he truly etched his name into the history books as he oversaw an unbeaten campaign to make it a hat-trick of Premier League titles.