Pep blow as Arsenal close in on Arteta
From talking tactics with Wenger to becoming Pep’s go-to guy, Mikel Arteta has long been a...
MIKEL ARTETA is willing to leave Manchester City immediately and become Arsenal’s new manager. The former Gunners midfielder is scheduled to meet director Josh Kroenke, who is in England, before Arsenal formally recommend he is offered the job. The London outfit need an appointment urgently after an abysmal run of form and have contacted their City counterparts to discuss Arteta’s release as they prepare an offer. Club chiefs want to end the
During the days before last season’s curtain-raiser, one of Manchester City’s staff noted the irony of their first fixture. ‘Just our luck that it is Arsenal, after what has happened,’ they tutted.
What had happened was that Mikel Arteta, newly appointed as Pep guardiola’s assistant manager, had come extremely close to securing his first managerial job two months prior, only to be pipped by unai Emery.
The former Arsenal captain was a front-runner, impressing the board before Emery’s now-fabled PowerPoint presentation narrowly won the day.
His first Premier League game as guardiola’s no 2, a role he was promoted to weeks before, came against the club who interviewed him to become Arsene Wenger’s successor. Poetic, perhaps, that it was Arteta’s tactical nous that then won City the game.
City were a goal up at the Emirates, but the match hung in the balance when the Spaniard spotted how they could take it beyond the gunners. He sought out Benjamin Mendy and raheem Sterling, operating on the left, telling them how to manoeuvre around Arsenal.
Crucially, he instructed Mendy to fizz his crosses in on the floor, rather than float them into the box. Bernardo Silva soon scored City’s second exactly that way, after Mendy’s low ball from Sterling’s pass. guardiola leapt on Arteta, along with first-team coach rodolfo Borrell. They were on the way to consecutive league titles.
Clearly the powers that be at Arsenal — whose managing director Vinai Venkatesham and contract negotiator Huss Fahmy met Arteta at his home in the Manchester suburb of Didsbury on Sunday night before he underwent a final interview with director Josh Kroenke last night — have kept a close eye on Arteta since turning him down.
The final step into management for 37-year-old Arteta has been a long time coming. The former rangers midfielder was laying the groundwork long before he retired, affectionately labelled the ‘teacher’s pet’ in his final years at the Emirates Stadium.
Wenger would often have his captain close by and talk tactics with him, with many of the view that he would eventually manage the club. Providing he was not playing, Arteta would regularly chime in at half-time. While on the bench, the midfielder spoke openly of what he would do tactically in the given situation.
Sources around City have labelled his possible departure, particularly mid-season, as ‘potentially disastrous,’ unless plans are in place for a new assistant who is ready to go. There was a belief that Arteta was more likely to leave next summer — he has already rejected at least one job — but guardiola has said that he will never stand in Arteta’s way.
Arteta’s influence was great in his first two years as a coach, and grew once he became the right-hand man after Domenec Torrent took over at new York City in 2018. One source said that giving Arteta additional sway was ‘like making a new signing’ as
City retained the title — with 98 points — ahead of Liverpool.
Despite a soft exterior, he is no shrinking violet. given the might of guardiola, you may expect nodding dogs around him, but Arteta is very much the opposite.
He picks his moments to alter the manager’s view and can be forceful with it. The pair’s speed of conversation is so quick that it can completely go over the heads of bystanders, even those who have been in the game for decades.
His only public blot was the home defeat by Lyon in last season’s Champions League, a match guardiola served a suspension for. City lost their opening group game 2-1 on Arteta’s watch, but guardiola refused to blame his coach.
That night was not viewed as representative of how the Spaniard could manage. He took charge of every aspect in the week leading up to a match against Arsenal in guardiola’s first season, from training to matchday duties, as the manager felt Arteta would have more knowledge of the club he had recently left. City won 2-1.
He transformed Leroy Sane after the youngster struggled to adapt to life in England following a big-money move from
Schalke. He had a significant impact on Sterling’s finishing, which has improved no end over the last two campaigns. This season, he has been working on rodrigo’s positioning as the new midfielder acclimatises to the Premier League.
Arteta’s bonds with the squad are strong. His small office, just down the hall from guardiola’s, is often occupied by players reviewing various clips. Plenty speak privately of how Arteta has improved them. Observers note how tight the connections are.
‘i knew they liked each other and got on, but i recently saw him hug a player like a long-lost brother,’ a source said.
The scale of his influence has come as a slight surprise. As detailed in the forensic book, guardiola first became aware of Arteta’s tactical talent in 2012 before Barcelona faced Chelsea in the Champions League. ‘Pep picked up the phone to pick his brain,’ authors Pol Ballus and Lu Martin wrote. ‘impressed by Arteta’s critical analysis, he made a mental note to seek his advice more often.’ An open-ended offer to work with guardiola should he manage in England was eventually made. Arteta rang to cash that in three years ago and they have not looked back. Some Barcelona fans coined Arteta as ‘Little guardiola’ as he came through the La Masia academy, and similar could be said of his coaching style, too. Management was clearly always the aim. roberto Montiel, a former coach at the famed Basque youth club Antiguoko, told Sportsmail last year: ‘You talk to him for an hour about football and you know what type of person he is. if guardiola took him to City despite him never having coached before, that speaks volumes. Mikel was born to play but, perhaps even more than that, he was born to manage.’ So, by saying goodbye to the Etihad now, it is merely the hastening of the inevitable.