Arteta faces an ‘Apprentice’ grilling for Arsenal position

Mikel Arteta is emerging as the leading candidate to succeed Unai Emery as Arsenal head coach, but the Spaniard may have to pass an Apprentice-style interview process if he wants to take charge of the club.

Arsenal are working through their list of potential successors to Emery, including interim coach Freddie Ljungberg, before holding interviews.

They must also decide whether they will try to appoint a permanent head coach now or wait until the summer.

Arteta is viewed as the leading candidate if Arsenal look to make an appointment during the season, but he is still likely to have to go through a lengthy interview process if he decides he wants the job.

With so many people involved in identifying the next man, Arsenal may split their executives over a series of interviews for candidates to undergo. Sources believe head of football Raul Sanllehi and technical director Edu will pair up for one round of interviews, with director of football operations Huss Fahmy and managing director Vinai Venkatesham seeing candidates in separate talks.

It is then believed that the favoured candidate would ideally be flown to the United States to meet Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke and his son Josh, who would finally approve an appointment.

The process would be similar to the interview round of the television show The Apprentice, when contestants are grilled by four experts who then feed back to Lord Sugar and he makes the final decision over an elimination.

Arteta is believed to be interested in leaving his post as Manchester City No2 to rejoin the club that he played for and captained.

Ljungberg is currently interim head coach. A draw with Norwich City and defeat by Brighton, ahead of tomorrow night’s trip to West Ham United, have not helped his case to win the job.