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Written by Martin Graham | May 7, 2022
Mikel Arteta will remain Arsenal coach for the next three seasons.
The Barcelona academy graduate signed, on Friday, an extension to keep him at the head of the club until 2025.
Arteta took over from fellow Spaniard Unai Emery after a poor run of matches that included a loss to Chelsea in the 2019 Europa League final. Arteta, who had served as Pep Guardiola’s assistant at Manchester City, was offered the role until 2023.
The former Paris Saint-Germain midfielder had some immediate success, leading the team to the FA Cup final and the title against Chelsea who denied him the Europa League title months ago. This made Arteta the first coach to win the title as Arsenal captain and manager, and the first Arsenal coach to win a major title since George Graham.
Months later, Arteta’s team beat Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool on penalties to win the Community Shield. But since those victories, time has been upside down for the Spaniard and the club. However, the club believes in his vision and has offered him a two-year extension to his current deal which will see him stay until 2025.
Arteta sets Arsenal’s goal in the Champions League
“I’m excited, grateful, really, really happy today,” Arteta told Arsenal’s official website after the announcement. When I spoke to Josh [Kroenke] He could see the club at the same point and he wanted to take the club the way I wanted to do it.
So everything he said, and which Stan said when I was with both of them, they always delivered.
“We want to take the club to the next level and really compete with the big teams. In order to do that we have to play in the Champions League.
“We must be able to develop the team, improve our players, improve all departments, find more contact with our fans, improve the atmosphere in the Emirates, be able to recruit the best talent and the best people for this club and lead this project to this level.”
Arteta says the new contract came when Arsenal were in bad shape
The former Everton midfielder also stated that he got the contract when Arsenal suffered three losses.
“The club offered me the new contract when we lost three matches,” the Spaniard revealed. “It doesn’t happen in football. It’s part of what they think, the conversation I’m having, the belief that they have in me, the coaching staff, in what we’re doing.
“The people who now own this football club and lead this football club, I’ve never seen it and I got emotional when I saw it. I just said these guys are serious and committed, so I better move on.
“Words and facts are very different things and in football they can be very different in terms of results and that is not the case. They meant something for several months and the conversations we had and they put it on a piece of paper after that day so there is no better way to describe the people we have at the club. For me “.
Arsenal is fourth in the Premier League table, two points behind its north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. They will return to the UEFA Champions League for the first time since 2017 if they finish the season in this position.
