Arteta joins Man City!
It’s official, Arsenal captain Mikel Arteta has joined Premier League rivals Manchester City. But as you will be more than aware, Arteta has joined the Citizens as a coach rather than as a player.
It has been confirmed by several media outlets this afternoon that Mikel Arteta has finalised his deal with Manchester City, which will see him officially move to the club on the 1st July 2016, after his contract with Arsenal expires.
Arteta joins new incoming boss Pep Guardiola in Manchester and will become a part of his fellow countryman’s backroom staff, although it’s not been confirmed which position Arteta will take up.
Arteta becomes the latest Arsenal man to swap The Emirates for The Etihad, although of course he doesn’t join the likes of Nasri, Adebayor, Clichy and Sagna, but rather follows in the footsteps of Patrick Vieira, who went into management with Manchester City.
It was never officially confirmed whether Arsenal offered Arteta a position to be a coach at the club, although there was also interest from rivals Tottenham. It would be disappointing if Arsenal didn’t offer Arteta a role at the club because he did wonderful things to stabilise a shaky situation at Arsenal when he joined. Arteta then of course showed true leadership qualities and management of the team when he became the captain of Arsenal some years later. If Arteta had stayed on as a coach with the Gunners, he would’ve been able to offer his professional advice and experience at Arsenal as a means of managing players at the club. However he will instead be offering those qualities to the Manchester City players instead.
If Arsenal didn’t offer him a coaching role then we cannot be disappointed that he has gone to City, but even if the club did offer him a deal, can we blame him for moving on? I think he has moved on from Arsenal because he’s already learnt under Wenger and now wants a fresh insight under Pep. Anyone agree?
By AH