Arsenal are reported to be close in confirming Manchester City’s assistant coach and former Gunner, Mikel Arteta as their new manager, after a late-night meeting with the Spaniard on Sunday.
Both Sky Sports and Metro UK have reported that Mikel Arteta could be announced as the new manager of the London club in the next 48hours, after talks.
According to the report by Metro UK, some senior figures from the Gunners, including managing director Vinai Venkatesham and contract negotiator Huss Fahmy, were seen leaving Arteta’s Manchester residence early on Monday.
Although there is no word from the management of Manchester City as regarding this latest development, the report added that City were expecting an approach from the Gunners following Sunday’s clash at the Emirates and the club had already given Arteta permission to speak to his former side about an exit from the Eithad.
The meeting at Arteta’s house lasted around two-and-a-half-hours, where he was given promises about the club’s budget, updates on contract renewals and assurances over the board’s expectations in the short-term, the report said.
Arsenal are ready to snatch Arteta, after recording just one win in twelve games in all competition, and the disappointing result on Sunday was a clear signal to the board that an urgent decision has to be made.
Former Arsenal youth coach who is now the interim manager, Freddie Ljungberg who replaced Unai Emery has also struggled to fix the problem at the Emirate.
Arteta who has been favoured to return to the Emirate as a manager has no managerial experience, and if he is appointed, Arsenal could be taking a huge risk. He has been an understudy manager under Pep Guardiola, but he is not ‘Pep Guardiola’ and fans could end up getting disappointed if he struggled to replicate what Pep has been able to do at Machester City at the Emirate.
The 37-year-old Arteta began his football career as a youth player at Barcelona, he later played on loan with PSG, then joined Rangers afterward. He moved to Spain to join Real Sociedad, before joining Everton initially on loan in 2005, which was made permanent for a fee of £2 million (€2.2 million) later that year.
He moved to Arsenal from Everton in 2011 after a fantastic season at Everton and won two FA Cups and two FA Community Shield before he retired in 2016. He joined Manchester City same year, becoming an assistant coach to Pep Guardiola.
Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola speaking on the possibility of Arteta leaving to join Arsenal, he said:
‘If it happens, it will happen. ‘When he wants to talk we are open to talk but it’s private, I don’t want to make things uncomfortable.’
Arsenal will have to pay a small compensation fee to City to hire Arteta and the Spaniard can expect a substantial improvement on his £900,000-a-year salary at the Etihad. Arteta had been in north London earlier on Sunday to witness first hand the chaos at Arsenal.