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LONDON. – Arsène Wenger has rejected a stunning offer from China to make him the highest-paid football manager in the world since revealing he will not retire, whether or not he remains at Arsenal beyond the end of the season.

An unnamed Chinese club were prepared to pay Wenger £30 million-a-year net, twice the salary of the current best-paid manager, Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola.

The offer dwarves the two-year extension that Arsenal have offered Wenger, which would pay him about £10m-a-year, but joining the Chinese football revolution is not an attractive proposition for him.

Wenger has yet to decide whether he will stay at Arsenal next season and club insiders are growing increasingly anxious that he will decide to walk away.

The manager has insisted he is not ready to retire and will be in management next season, which sparked the enormous offer from the Chinese Super League club.

But Wenger has rejected the interest while he concentrates on the remainder of the season with Arsenal. Even if he leaves the Emirates in the summer, Wenger would most likely snub any renewed offer from China in favour of taking a job in one of Europe’s top leagues.

Real Madrid, who have tried to appoint him in the past, is thought to be Wenger’s preferred destination away from Arsenal if they decided to make a change. – The Daily Telegraph.