Robbie Savage
Former Arsenal star Arteta will have a great opportunity to rebuild and reinvent the Gunners
MIKEL ARTETA is a good fit for Arsenal – but he needs to be ruthless and build a team in his own image.
In his first training session, Arteta should concentrate on the Gunners’ organisation and shape without the ball because they have been a shambles defensively this season.
In short, he has a fantastic opportunity to rebuild and reinvent Arsenal.
I don’t go along with the people who say Arteta’s appointment is a massive risk because he has no previous managerial experience.
Pep Guardiola was a firsttime manager when he took over at Barcelona – and he has turned out all right, hasn’t he?
Arteta has been learning from the genius of Pep as his No.2 at Manchester City, so why shouldn’t he be ready to put some of Guardiola’s ideas into action at the Emirates?
And I think Arteta ‘gets’ Arsenal. There may be fans who think he is better suited to Everton and Carlo Ancelotti – who is expected to take over at Goodison Park – might be a better fit for the Gunners.
But former Rangers star Arteta spent five years as a player in north London, so there is not much about Arsenal he doesn’t know by now.
He also has the advantage of not being the man who followed Arsene Wenger into the manager’s chair – a task that proved too much for Unai Emery.
Going down the route of a former player, on paper Arteta has as much to offer as Patrick Vieira or Freddie Ljungberg.
If I was an Arsenal fan, I’d be thinking, “He’s one of us.”
To establish his own identity on the pitch, Arteta’s backroom staff will be critical. Guardiola surrounds himself with experts in every aspect of coaching and Arteta would do well to follow suit.
It will be interesting to see where current coaches Steve Bould and Per Mertesacker fit in.
Mertesacker was a World Cup winner with Germany but without the ball Arsenal have been all over the place defensively.
Above all, Arteta will need strong backing from the board.
Owner Stan Kroenke has one of the richest sporting empires in the world, so he needs to dip into his savings and give Arteta robust support financially. The
Spaniard missed out on the Arsenal job last time, when it probably came too soon for him. Now the timing feels right.
There is no need for the Gunners to give up on a top-four finish this season. Just up the road, Jose Mourinho has shown what can happen by stringing a few wins together.
Tottenham will be in the top four if they beat Chelsea and Arsenal shouldn’t regard a sevenpoint gap as insurmountable.
Wherever Arsenal finish, they must give Arteta time. If he succeeds, the reinvention of Arsenal will be an exciting chapter at a club who have lost their identity.