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LONDON. — Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was at his engaging best last Friday, as he took a question-and- answer session in front of a group of local businessmen during the club’s tour of the Far East. Among other topics, the Frenchman spoke candidly about why he wants to persist with the club’s policy of recruiting the planet’s best youngsters, what it takes to become a top level footballer, how he deals with the inflated egos of modern-day players and what ingredients he feels are needed to assemble a winning team.

Sportsmail’s Sami Mokbel was in the audience at the Royal Pines Hotel, in Saitama, Japan, as Wenger gave an intriguing insight into the inner works of his mind. The full transcript is below:

In a highly competitive, globalised, market, how does Arsenal find the best talent?
Arsene Wenger: One of our strengths is young people know we will give them a chance. But what we look for is their motivation to be successful.
But what is motivation? How can you tell if somebody is motivated? How can you remain motivated?

AW: Well for me, motivation is a person who has the capability to recruit the resources he needs to achieve a goal. For example, earlier today I went for a jog in Saitama, but I couldn’t find my way back. I was motivated to come back to the hotel, but I couldn’t find my way. So, I was highly motivated and slowly I found my way back.

But what does that show?
AW: It shows that motivation is essential but not enough. You also need consistency in your motivation and that is what we try to test in players as well. For me that is a very underrated quality. I could have said: “Right, I can’t find my way back to the hotel so let’s see if I can find a taxi.” But because I’m sportsman I decided not to get a taxi and that I would find my way back no matter how long it would take me, so I continued to run.

That’s what I mean in the consistency of your motivation, the stamina of your motivation.
When you look at people who are successful, you will find that they aren’t the people who are motivated, but have consistency in their motivation. You have many people who start diets on January 1. Some of them last until mid-January, some give up mid-June and some of them last.

We are interested in the ones that last because that makes a successful sportsman. That doesn’t necessarily mean successful sportsmen are happy people, but it means they are determined and they are ready to hurt themselves to be successful and that’s the type we are looking for. The people that are very demanding with themselves and each other for a long time. That consistent motivation is applicable to football, business, anything you do in life.

But where do you look for that talent?
AW: We look all over the world. It’s simple as that. I’ve spent a long time in the game, and I still think it’s a little miracle how popular this game has become on a worldwide level at such a high speed. Today, when something happens in London, they know it in Saitama at the same minute. So that means Arsenal are a worldwide club and we are interested in worldwide talent. The world is small.

Previously a young boy in Saitama never had the chance to become a world class player, but today he has that chance. Because if he has the talent and determination then he will get the chance somewhere and that’s what we try to do. We try to look all over the world to find players who have the talent and desire because unfortunately, in football, there is more money than talent.

What is your experience of nurturing talent into world class players?
AW: I believe one of the best things about managing people is that we can influence lives in a positive way. That’s basically what a manager is about. When I can do that, I am very happy. That’s not the only part of my job because the essential part is to win on a Saturday afternoon, but it is an important part. In a world where we only care about stars, it is important to say to players: “You are not a star yet, but you can become one and I will give you a chance.”At Arsenal we are proud to do that, and we have fought against the policy of only buying stars. You have to understand that a player who is a star was at one stage an unknown person who had talent. We want to be the club who gives this guy a chance.

You working with some of the most highly-paid athletes in the world so how big is the factor of egos in your job as a manager?
AW: If you’re asking me if the egos are big? Yes. You must know that a person, no matter how big a star he is, is ready to listen to you if it meets his needs. The condition for him to know if you meet his needs is to test you first. Is the manager capable of making him the player he wants to be.

Unfortunately in management, you cannot cheat for a long time. When you are in a squad of 30 people, the players detect at a huge speed the weakness in your personality.

So that’s the moment of truth, when a person sits in front of you. They observe you and then they try to decide if you can help them. If they think you are the man who can help them, they will respect you. The next step for them is deciding whether they are in a squad who can help them to be successful. We had that problem when we were under financially restricted conditions. For some players we didn’t have enough stars to be successful as quickly as they wanted to be. Of course, that’s one of the problems we face in our job.

Is leaving your idea of football art only achievable by results on the pitch?
AW: A manager is a guide. He takes a group of people and says with you I can make us a success, I can show you the way. But first you have to have a clear idea of what you want. You have to have a clear concept and make it understandable so they can work with you, and that’s not very easy.

That’s why it was very interesting for me to work in Japan when I did, because you have to make your ideas as clear as possible and you have to adapt to the difference of culture. And sometimes you have to maintain your own ideas against the results.
Is there a difference between man-management in football and in business?

AW: Not really. The only difference is that most of the time in business you manage people who have maturity. In football, you manage people who are 18, 19, 20-years-old. The responsibilities are quite big for them. We forget that these players have to perform under huge public pressure, in front of 60 000 people, with a huge responsibility to win games. I’m not sure how I would have responded to it if I was 20, rich, famous and a big star — it’s not easy to handle. — Mailonline.