No-nonsense Arteta would give Arsenal much-needed steel as their manager, 18 months after club bottled appointing him
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MIKEL ARTETA was never one of the lads during his five seasons at Arsenal but didn’t worry about being the most popular player in the dressing-room.
And he will bring the same no-nonsense attitude to the manager’s job if he gets the nod to replace Unai Emery at the Emirates.
He is the favourite for the job after Arsenal managing director Vinai Venkatesham and lawyer Huss Fahmy were photographed leaving his house at 1am on Monday morning.
And Arteta would be likely to make an immediate impact.
From the moment he was signed from Everton in a £10milion deadline day deal in 2011, Arteta’s ultra-professional attitude shone like a beacon for Arsene Wenger.
The Spanish midfielder didn’t have the passing ability of Santi Cazorla or Mesut Ozil and nor did he provide the lung-bursting runs which made Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey such crowd favourites.
But his tactical awareness and positional sense made him a key member of Wenger’s team and it was no surprise when he was handed the captain’s armband after Thomas Vermaelen’s move to Barcelona in 2014.
Having undergone a major heart operation as a boy and being told by doctors that he would not be able to play sport, Arteta has always been driven by a single-minded determination.
He was often frustrated by Wenger’s failure to take a more pragmatic approach to certain games and couldn’t understand why the midfield remained so wide open and vulnerable to the counter-attack.
He witnessed those failings first hand on Sunday as he watched Manchester City pour through Arsenal’s flimsy resistance during a comfortable 3-0 victory.
That lack of game management will be top of his to-do list if he is given the green light to launch his managerial career at the Emirates.
His good friend Pep Guardiola, who he first met at Barcelona’s La Masia academy, has made it clear that he will not stand in Arteta’s way.
He said yesterday: “Mikel is an important part of our set-up, but if it happens, it happens. When he wants to talk, we are open. We don’t want to make things uncomfortable for him.”
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If former chief executive Ivan Gazidis had had his way, Arteta would have been appointed as Wenger’s successor 18 months ago.
But he was overruled by other members of Arsenal’s recruitment panel, who were concerned by Arteta’s lack of managerial experience and went for the safer option of Unai Emery.
That decision proved to be a major mistake and with Everton also keen to appoint their former player as their new manager, Arsenal are determined not to make the same mistake twice.
