Arsene Wenger at 1,000 games: Sir Alex Ferguson pays tribute

Former Manchester United coach, Sir Alex Ferguson has paid a tribute to Arsenal Manager, Arsene Wenger ahead of his 1,000th game in charge

"I congratulate Arsène in reaching this momentous landmark. Having also reached the same milestone at one club, I cannot emphasize enough the level of dedication, resilience as well as sacrifice required and for that I have for the utmost admiration. Over the years we enjoyed some fantastic battles and you could say we had survived together and respected each other's efforts to play good football. I always enjoy watching Arsène's sides - Arsenal play the right way. Playing against them always presented special challenges that I burned many hours over the years thinking about. He has always been a conscientious member of our trade who makes it his business to help other managers. Perhaps the biggest compliment I could give Arsène is that I could never be anything other than competitive with my rival for 17 years."

Wenger who will become the fourth manager after Sir Matt Busby, Dario Gradi and Sir Alex Ferguson to reach the milestone said,

"It makes you feel 'where did the time go? It looks to me like I started yesterday, I can't believe it is such a long time. Why? Because you're always focused on looking forward to the next game and when you look back you think 'I made quite a distance there'. Despite that, your only interest is the next game, our drug is the next game, the hope for the next game, the desire to win the next one.

You go step by step and finally when you look back it's a long time. I would just like to say for me it's an honour to manage a club of this dimension for such a long time and I would like to thank everybody who is involved in the club for giving me such a confidence for such a long time."