So it has now been confirmed (although very few of us here on Just Arsenal are actually surprised) that Arsenal have given Mikel Arteta a new contract extension, even though the Gunners are yet to confirm that they will be playing in the Champions League next season.
Arteta has made it clear that Josh Kroenke is on the same page as himself in his vision of the future of the club, and has promised that the Kroenkes are backing Arteta’s project to get the Gunners back up and competing with the best in the world.
But the Arsenal legend Martin Keown is not so sure that the contract should have been announced until the end of the season, and you can see that he has some valid points.
Speaking to talkSPORT, Keown said: “They’ve just lost three games and won three games. I thought they might have waited until the summer because we are now at a crossroads and got a huge game coming up.
“They obviously feel there’s no desire for any change, they’re happy. I think they’re right. I probably would’ve waited until the summer.
“Perhaps there was a clamour for the manager from other clubs, we don’t know what’s happening internally, they wanted to meet his needs and felt no reason for any kind of change.
“We could’ve been looking at a very different situation had they not beaten Chelsea, Manchester United and West Ham all in one week.
“If they’d been announcing after losing those games it might have been a different situation. I think it’s good for the players, get the man in and settled in place.
“The person in charge has to be looked after and resolved. It feels like the start of the journey.”
Well, it looks to me like Arteta was given the simple target of taking Arsenal back into Europe next season, and that seems to be wrapped up now, with only the confirmation of which competition is to be decided in the next 4 games.
With Arteta saying that the contract was first given to him after we had lost those three games, it shows that the management has great faith in the Boss.
Well if Europe was the target for this season, he has definitely done his job. Let us hope that he can improve on that in the following years…
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Video – Mikel Arteta on his new contract, Leeds game, and incoming players…