Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has suggested that "age discrimination" may play a part in the relentless speculation over his future.

The 68-year-old is the longest-serving manager in England, having joined the Gunners in 1996, and is approaching the halfway point of a two-year contract extension he signed last summer.

Arsenal's poor performance in the Premier League this term has renewed calls for him to quit from some sections of the club's fanbase, however, while some reports in the media have suggested that the club's hierarchy have already sounded out Thomas Tuchel about replacing him this summer.

"Look, when you age... you focus on doing well for your club and ignore all the rest," Wenger told beIN Sports. "The older you get, the more it becomes age discrimination. I accept if the results are not good enough then you have to take the consequences.

"But overall that perpetual thing how long you been at a club, how old you are, I find that a bit difficult to take. But all the rest I have to accept because I am in a public job and have to make results and I accept I will be judged on results.

"I am maybe naive enough to believe that with the time going on, with perspective and context will stand out what I have done for my club and not so much the result of the last game or how much I will be applauded when I stop one day.

"I'm a little bit fed up of all that modern thing about being completely taking care of image. I've always worked my whole life about with the idea of who you are rather than how you look so I'm not too concerned about that."

During Wenger's tenure Arsenal have won three Premier League titles and seven FA Cups.