Pep’s mate Arteta is just what Arsenal don’t need.. no experience and too nice

MIKEL ARTETA has been gifted a halo by his association with Pep Guardiola. He is now the favourite to be Arsenal boss and has been in talks with executives from the Emirates.

But will he be any good? Can he make the step up from No.2 to being the main man, just because he’s sat next to Pep for a few years?

Leading a club on your own is a totally different challenge with a load more stresses. Arsenal are trying to buy in someone who knows City’s secrets. Someone who has been at the side of Guardiola (the pair, left), knows the workings of the world’s greatest coach and are praying that some of his magic has rubbed off. But for me, Arteta for Arsenal is a massive red herring. It is nonsense for Arsenal to think that what he has done as a No.2 at City means he can cut it with them as head coach and rebuild the club. I have seen nothing from him on the touchline, or anything revolutionary from Guardiola’s teams, to justify his assistant manager being given one of the biggest jobs in English football. Arteta is the epitome of what Arsenal are. A nice lad. Inoffensive. You’d take him home to your mum. Guardiola has won trophies at all the clubs he has been at, without Arteta at his side. Manchester City have been one of the world’s highest spending sporting organisations. They’ve got in Pep a manager who has spent one of the biggest ever chunks of money on a team.

Yes, of course Arteta has a great footballing CV. And working alongside Pep will have given him a good experience as to what professional management is like.

And he is now benefiting from being the man standing next to the man. That is why he is being talked about for other jobs.

It is borderline absurd. There is also a desperation for clubs to tap into former playing legends.

If Arteta had never played for Arsenal would he be in the running for this job? Would he be factored in? No.

Likewise would Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the Molde manager, now be Manchester United manager if he had not played and been a legend himself? No.

They should go and ask the question of an experienced manager.

I keep banging the drum for Diego Simeone (above). He knows how to build a club and gets players grafting.

Arteta is one of the last vestiges of cuddly Arsenal, lovely Arsenal.

He will get them playing lovely football, tiki-taka, possession based... and won’t win a bean with them.

No thanks.

‘I keep banging the drum for Simeone. He knows how to build a club’

Carlo Ancelotti closes in on taking over at Everton, he would be well advised to sit down with Duncan Ferguson to understand just what it means to be a Blue on Merseyside. Ancelotti’s memories of Goodison Park may not be all that fond, having lost his last game in English football there, 1-0, in May 2011. Chelsea sacked him before they even left the ground. He will be guaranteed a much friendlier reception if he pitches up as the new boss at the famous old ground. And he could do no better than check in with Big Dunc, who typifies puff-yourchest-out, get-our-everton-back. Everton are not just another corporation, they are a family and community club. The red half of Liverpool have been on the rise this decade. If Ancelotti does something similar for Everton, he could be just as big a hero as Big Dunc in the Gwladys Street End.