STOP THEABUSE

Arteta is adamant that managers are being put off taking jobs due to the amount of personal attacks

MIKEL ARTETA says football bosses are being put off from taking jobs due to the fear of the personal abuse that comes with managing a club.

The Arsenal manager called for ‘change’ in the wake of Steve Bruce’s admission that he is considering giving up managing due to the criticism he received while at Newcastle United and the strain that placed on him and his family.

Arteta said he was ‘really sad’ to discover the extent to which 60-year-old Bruce, who left the Magpies on Wednesday, had suffered during his reign on Tyneside and praised him for speaking out.

The Spaniard added: ‘I heard a lot, and I have friends who are doing the courses, who doubted whether they want to take the hot seat, or whether it is better to be an assistant or something else.

‘Yes (people call me personally). And people who have been managers already. Experienced managers, and they are thinking about not doing it again.

‘For me, this cannot be the barrier, because you have fear about the treatment that you are going to receive.

‘The enjoyment as well is that big, that it should not stop you. But it is important that we take care a little bit of the environment and putting things in the right place. If not, I don’t think it will get better. I think it will get worse if we don’t do anything about it.’ Asked for his message to those who are having second thoughts about pursuing or continuing a career in football management, Arteta (left), whose side host Aston Villa tonight, said: ‘That you cannot lose the focus, the passion and the love. The reason why you made the decision in the first place to do that. ‘If you are affected by every opinion in life nowadays, with how easy you can read stuff about yourself, you are not going to be happy with whatever you do. ‘You have to be able to deal with that. But obviously we can help to be able to deal with that.’

Arteta is already no stranger to the criticism and judgment that comes with management, less than two years into the job with Arsenal.

He said: ‘I think you adapt, you learn and you try to take things into perspective. You agree or disagree.

‘Criticism and opinions can you make you better and you have to listen to that when it comes from the right place.

‘You need to have the right people as well.

‘The key is where you put your focus. If you put your focus there, you are going to be an unhappy man.’