Pep Guardiola has insisted that he never thought about stopping Mikel Arteta from becoming the manager of Arsenal.
Arteta became Arsenal’s manager last year after spending some time as the assistant manager to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.
There were reports earlier on that Manchester City were unhappy to lose his services and that Guardiola would have preferred for him to wait and join Arsenal at the end of the season.
The Catalan has, however, come out to clear the air about that and claims that he never stops any member of his staff or colleague from chasing after their dreams.
He claimed that he only asked his fellow Spaniard if he had the right feeling about the job.
And he added that Arteta made the right choice by joining the Gunners because he always loved playing there and dreamed of going back to the Emirates as their manager.
‘It happened in the past with my colleagues and my assistants,’ said Guardiola as quoted by the Metro.
‘I never said, say or will say what they have to do.
‘They have ambition, professional ways, families and everything. So what I said to Mikel is: ‘Do you want to do it, do you feel it? Then you have to do it.’
‘He loves Arsenal, he was there many years. It was a dream from day one to come back there, this challenge came and he had to take it.
‘I would not be the guy to say ‘no, no you have to stay’. I don’t believe that, I don’t like that. The opportunity came and he took it.’
Arteta would have faced his former side for the first time today, but the Premier League game between the two sides has been postponed yet again.
It is unclear when the match will be rescheduled.
