Arsene Wenger insists the final decision over his future rests with senior figures at Arsenal by claiming: "I am an employee."
It had long been the case that the 68-year-old could determine the timing of his own departure after transforming the club he joined 22 years ago.
However, repeated failures in recent seasons have corroded his relationship with supporters and left him facing a fight to justify his position as manager with Arsenal battling to avoid a second consecutive season without Champions League football.
There is expected to be a formal review of Wenger’s role at the end of the season and when asked whether the club were beginning to make contingency plans for a new manager, Wenger replied: "I don’t know.
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"In life, you focus on the quality of your job. How well you commit, how hard you work. And you try to master what you can master.
"What is above you… you will not decide your future in your newspapers, and I am exactly like you.
"I am an employee and I give my best for my club that I love."
Wenger also expressed his surprise at the vociferous backlash Arsenal have endured in the wake of losing last weekend’s EFL Cup Final to Manchester City.
"When you go to the final you have a risk to lose it as well," he said. "You have to accept that we got to the final and we won the cup last year at Wembley so overall when you get to the final it is not guaranteed always that you win it.
"I am quite amazed that it is such an earthquake that we have lost a final - that means that we have got our fans used to going to Wembley and win it. But nobody can guarantee that."
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And ahead of tomorrow’s Premier League match against City, when asked whether the players felt the disappointment to the same extent he does, Wenger replied: "I don't know.
"We have not found at the moment a machine that measures exactly the intensity of the disappointments, but disappointed... you're not at the top level if you don't love to win.
"My job is to protect the players and to get them to focus on the next performance. I am responsible.
"I get as well the plaudits when it goes well, so I have to take the bad when it doesn’t go well. It’s part of the job."
