Arteta Overcame Setbacks and Boos to Defy Doubters at Arsenal

Mikel Arteta’s tenure at Arsenal began inauspiciously on a crisp December night in 2019 when Arsenal managing director Vinai Venkatesham left the coach’s home in a Manchester suburb after a meeting where Arteta outlined a “hugely impressive” five-year plan to rebuild a club reeling from Arsène Wenger’s departure and Unai Emery’s failed succession. Venkatesham stepped into his car with colleague Huss Fahmy, confident in the direction.

The club was taking a huge gamble, albeit one with which executives grew increasingly comfortable. Many Arsenal officials felt Arteta won the interview round when Wenger left in 2018, but hiring a 36-year-old rookie for a seismic transition seemed too risky at the time; Emery had pedigree and experience, while Arteta offered charisma and a strong playing record.

Venkatesham pushed Arteta as the principal candidate to replace Emery, careful not to antagonize Manchester City, where Arteta served as Pep Guardiola’s assistant. Discretion was critical, but Venkatesham was startled early that morning by a call from Arsenal’s media chief telling him to check the Sun newspaper; photos of him leaving Arteta’s house had been published online. It was an embarrassment, with one source noting “displeasure” from City and “noises made at boardroom level.”

Arteta, announced as head coach a week later after fraught negotiations, could have joined Arsenal’s staff when he retired as a player in 2016, but some at the club advised him that joining Guardiola at City would be “the equivalent of a master’s degree in coaching.”

The prognosis for the new manager looked bleak when he stepped out at Bournemouth on Boxing Day for his first game. His five-year plan detailed how Arsenal had fallen behind, with Arteta and sporting director Edu aiming to rebuild a squad of 22 high-quality, tactically flexible players. That required money, where Arteta suited Napoleon’s maxim of needing “lucky generals.”

“It was much better to be the manager that followed the manager who succeeded Wenger,” said one source. Fortuitously, Arteta’s arrival came two transfer windows after the Kroenke family bought out the 30% stake of sanctioned Russian-Uzbek oligarch Alisher Usmanov. The Kroenkes had long said they would invest when in full control; most dismissed that as deflection, but it proved true. “Mikel had money Unai and even Arsène didn’t really have,” said a former employee.

“It was the perfect storm in that you had a really driven young manager, bright, well-schooled, ambitious and enthusiastic. You’ve got the money and you had a board that gave him time,” said one former senior employee close to Arteta. “He told them it would take five years.”

All senior Arsenal sources praised the Kroenke family, with some highlighting the active role of Josh Kroenke, 46, son of patriarch Stan, as a key player. “I had the impression he persuaded the board to pull the emergency cord on funding,” said one.

FA Cup and Community Shield wins in Arteta’s first eight months were overshadowed by COVID-19 restrictions, but a terrible 2020-21 season made him appear doomed to outsiders. “There were never internal discussions about that,” said a source familiar with board meetings. In December 2020, Arsenal lost 2-1 at Everton, extending a run of seven Premier League games without a win, five defeats. They then lost a Carabao Cup tie 4-1 at home to Manchester City before Chelsea visited the Emirates. Arteta’s intensity is extreme even in good times; this looked like terminal pressure.

“They looked poor at Everton,” said one executive. “His future wasn’t being discussed, but I feared for him.”

The board did not waiver. Arsenal beat Chelsea 3-1 on Boxing Day to relieve pressure, and though Arteta struggled and finished eighth that season, he remained backed to the hilt, as evident by the departure of Mesut Özil in January 2021. “That was totemic,” said one source. “It cost the club a lot of money [to pay up his contract], but they backed Mikel’s judgment.”

Arteta had made clear he would not tolerate certain characters; Özil’s friend Shkodran Mustafi left in the same window. A line had been drawn. When Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang attempted to cross it a year later, he too was sold, even though Arsenal was in a race for Champions League places and desperate for his goals.

A key scene in the Amazon Prime documentary chronicling the 2021-22 season showed Rob Holding and Mohamed Elneny discussing Aubameyang’s departure. “Boss had balls,” said Elneny. “Yeah, boss had balls,” agreed Holding. The message had landed.

That said, the 2021-22 season started shambolically: Arsenal lost at promoted Brentford, then at home to Chelsea amid jeers and boos, followed by a 5-0 defeat at City with Granit Xhaka sent off and indiscipline clearly a problem. Insiders say Arteta did not waiver. “Mikel is not the type of person to get overwhelmed about anything,” said one senior football staff member. “He’s very driven and very solid in his mind. There were difficult times and then obviously Arsenal had invested massively. But the Kroenkes deserve credit.”

Arteta has left his own distinctive stamp on the club — he is definitely the manager, not head coach, a title Arsenal initially avoided in the post-Wenger era to prevent a personality cult — but he also inherited building blocks for a first-class side.

William Saliba had been signed by a scouting team later dismantled by Edu, and Arteta nearly lost him by sending him on loan, unimpressed, before being persuaded to bring him back. A deal for Gabriel Magalhães was set in motion by the same scouts, and he arrived in September 2020. Bukayo Saka came through the academy.

No one at Arsenal doubts the significance of the summer of 2023 in making the step from good to great. The £200 million spent to bring in Declan Rice, Kai Havertz, Jurriën Timber and David Raya signaled not only an intent to compete with nation-state funded clubs but also showed Arteta’s charisma as a key recruitment asset; Rice rejected Chelsea, Manchester United and City. “The project seemed more exciting and I believe we’re on to big things here,” Rice said.

Over the past couple of seasons, Rice might have privately questioned that. Now his words look uncannily prescient.