Sky Sports News claim Mikel Arteta is now the “leading candidate” to land the Arsenal job; the coach who was in ‘advanced’ talks with Newcastle United over the summer.
The Gunners are still without a new manager after sacking Unai Emery last month, however it’s emerged this morning that the Spaniard – who’s currently Pep Guardiola’s assistant at Man City – is now the clear favourite.
This comes a few months after claims he ‘considering’ replacing Rafa Benitez at Newcastle after talks on Tyneside, with it recently reported that he and Patrick Viera were targeted BEFORE we appointed Steve Bruce:
Here’s what The Athletic’s Chris Waugh said back in September about our attempts to land Arteta:
“Bruce certainly wasn’t that far down the list.
“Who Newcastle’s first choice was? Now I know they looked at Patrick Vieira. They were very keen on Patrick Vieira.
“The same with Mikel Arteta, the assistant manager at Man City. I think talks got reasonably advanced with Arteta’s people and I think there was a stage where he was considering it, but it never got to the stage where it was imminent and he was going to be appointed.
“That’s what I don’t understand about what Newcastle did over the summer. They initially went for a young, European, forward-thinking manager, then they reverted to Steve Bruce.”
“I think Bruce was third or fourth choice on the list and the back up to the first couple of choices that they couldn’t get.”
Bruce is doing a brilliant job, but it’s fair to say Arteta could’ve been a far more exciting and forward-thinking appointment by the club.
After an impressive spell at City under Guardiola’s wing, it’ll be interesting to see how he gets on in North London IF he does land the Arsenal job.
