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The Football Association (FA) wants to hold talks with Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger to find out whether he is interested in taking over as England coach next year, the Daily Telegraph has reported. Wenger has yet to rule himself out of the job after a week of speculation following Roy Hodgson's resignation, and the Telegraph reported on Thursday that the Frenchman tops the list of names that the FA wants to speak to. The Frenchman is intent on remaining at Arsenal for the final year of his contract, but the Telegraph said "the FA now want to find out whether or not there is a genuine chance of tempting him away from the Emirates" after that. Neither the FA nor Arsenal would comment on the report, although a club source told ESPN FC that if the FA wanted "discreet talks" to sound out Wenger, he would probably be open to that. However, the source added that the Arsenal board still expects Wenger to reject any interest from the FA and that chief executive Ivan Gazidis still views the 66-year-old as the right man for the future. Wenger's answer to the FA could determine whether the governing body of English football decides to appoint an interim manager until next summer or goes for a permanent appointment before the start of World Cup qualifying in September. Arsenal visit the United States on a preseason tour toward the end of July, and the Telegraph reported that the FA wants an answer before then. Wenger will celebrate his 20th anniversary at Arsenal in October but his future beyond next year is in doubt after coming under heavy criticism from fans in the spring as the Gunners failed to maintain a once-promising Premier League title challenge. He has said he will not make a decision on whether to extend his contract until after next season, and that the results of the coming campaign could decide whether he stays. Wenger has previously said he thinks the England coach should be an Englishman, but British media have reported that the players themselves want a foreign manager to replace Hodgson. He remained coy about the possibility in his only public comments about the role since Hodgson stepped down after England's loss to Iceland at Euro 2016. "I'm under contract until 2017," he told beIN Sports. "What I'll do afterwards, I don't know, but for the moment, I've always respected all of my contracts until the very end. I'll continue to do the same. "I saw how Roy Hodgson looked after the elimination against Iceland... so for the moment I'm very happy where I am." When asked if he would be interested in the job one day, he added: "It's a good challenge at the moment for any manager since the team have just had two disappointments. "I'm not talking about myself here. I think it's an interesting challenge because it's a young team that has quality players all the same and they're coming off two disappointments at the World Cup in Brazil and the European Championships here. "So when things improve, he [the new manager] can only do better."
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