Robert Pires has revealed that he offered to volunteer for a job at Arsenal but was turned down, and states that the club should rely more on former players.
The French winger had a fantastic spell as a player in north London, lighting up the Highbury pitch from 2000 to 2006 with some fantastic displays as part of The Invincibles side which won the Premier League title unbeaten.
But contract disputes saw him leave the club to join Villarreal, with the winger admitting that he no longer saw himself as a first-choice player under Arsene Wenger.
A number of former Arsenal players in coaching or as backroom staff at the club, with the likes of Steve Bould, Edu and Mikel Arteta featuring prominently.
However, Pires says that the club should rely even more strongly on their old players, and that his offer to help out was not met with any enthusiasm.
"I don't understand why the club doesn't rely on former players," Pires told Canal Plus.
"I volunteered for a job at Arsenal and they told me that they were not interested."
Pires has previously worked with the Gunners in an informal role, assisting players recovering from injury.
Following Unai Emery's departure, he was at the training ground helping interim head-coach Freddie Ljungberg.
"No, for the moment nothing has happened even though there are a lot of rumours circulating about me," Pires said at the time.
"But I would like to state once again that I am there to help the team and to help the players who are unfortunately coming back from injury in particular.
"So today I have a little session with Hector Bellerin and maybe David Luiz. So we will see. Right now it is not on the table."
Following Mikel Arteta's arrival at the club, Ljungberg subsequently departed in the summer in order to "pursue new opportunities".
Pires had also offered his services to the club during Emery's reign, but despite a positive reaction from the Spanish boss, the club turned him down.
"Maybe a good start for me would be to work with him on the staff," Pires said in 2018. "That is why I sent a message to Unai Emery and he replied to me and said: 'Yeah, but we need to talk with the club'.
"The club said: 'Maybe it is a good idea but we already have Steve Bould'. So I said: 'No problem, I respect your decision'. Maybe one day, I hope."
