Arsenal closing in on a trophy haul ahead of Carabao Cup final against Manchester City on Sunday
The club’s under-21s coach, Mehmet Ali, had left to join Brentford in the summer and so this was a precaution from a manager who likes to be in complete control.
That kind of paranoia is not uncommon among Premier League managers and as Arsenal close in on their first title in 22 years, not to mention what might be the second trophy of the Arteta regime at Wembley on Sunday, it is all on the line.
Arsenal’s manager is as intense in his private dealings as he is on the touchline and in more than six years at Arsenal his position has evolved. First he was head coach, then he became manager, and now he is no longer just a major part of the club − he is the club.
So much has changed since Arteta arrived in December 2019. The hierarchy that appointed him then, and the one that developed in the years that followed, has all but gone. Aside from Josh Kroenke, son of owner Stan − and Stan himself − none wield more power at Arsenal than Arteta. But Stan, 78, is almost never there, his last sighting at the Emirates was in October 2024. Josh, 45, although more regular, is still a rare presence at the training ground at London Colney in south Hertfordshire.
This, then, is Arteta’s club. On the pitch, the team have reached the kind of irresistible form their manager will long have imagined for them. They are still in all four competitions. They are nine points clear in the Premier League, seven games away from bringing to an end the longest period in Arsenal’s history without a league championship since their first in 1931. Arteta may yet win the club’s first Champions League.
The next 10 weeks shimmer with more promise than at any point in the last two decades. But look beyond that horizon and the challenges are enormous. Those start with the future of Arteta, who is out of contract at the end of next season, and what he chooses to do next will define Arsenal for many years to come. But there are many more besides.
The maturation of Arteta’s team on the pitch has been in sharp contrast to the off-field upheaval of Arsenal over the past two years. Significant changes have been made, and insiders say there are more to come. Whether they are successful in their pursuit of trophies this season or not, this is a pivotal point in Arsenal’s history.
Back to the future
At Colney, staff talk about Arteta as a “unicorn” manager. It does not mean what one might assume − a one-off − but rather a manager who runs everything, at least on the football side of the business.When he joined Arsenal, they were still under the auspices of Raul Sanllehi and Vinai Venkatesham, respectively the head of football and managing director. Then that hierarchy was superseded by Tim Lewis, Stan’s boardroom heavyweight, a partner at Clifford Chance law firm who had counted the American billionaire as a client for many years.
Lewis, along with sporting director Edu Gaspar, showed faith in Arteta when others might have been more equivocal.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta celebrates winning the FA Cup (Catherine Ivill/PA)
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta celebrates winning the FA Cup (Catherine Ivill/PA)
In 2020, Arteta was, without having to request it, re-titled as manager from head coach. In December that year, Arteta and Lewis flew to Denver, Colorado, to present Stan with Arteta’s vision for the future. Kroenke agreed to back them, and the rebuild began in the summer window of 2021. The bond between the three − Arteta, Lewis and Edu − became the cornerstone of the club.
In 2022, Arteta agreed a new contract weeks before finishing fifth in the Premier League, which was only a small improvement on the eighth place the season before. That was symbolic of the hierarchy’s belief in him. The dynamic was very different then. Arteta was in nothing like the position of strength he is now, much less where he may be this summer.
If he does win the Premier League after three second-place finishes − and possibly even win the Champions League − he will be in a position to dictate terms like never before. The figures who occupied the biggest roles in September 2024, when his last contract was agreed, are all gone. Recent history tells us that winning the Premier League can be the final step on a long road for clubs. What happens in the aftermath can be just as much of a challenge.
The big question facing Arsenal is who manages Arteta? Having spent 22 years in thrall to Arsène Wenger, this is a club who know what it is like to come to rely on one man alone. After Wenger’s departure, the club sought to build an organisation where that dynamic would never be repeated. Less than a decade later, they are back in much the same position, with the lion’s share of the power and decision-making resting on the manager’s shoulders.
The issue of power is a delicate one at all football clubs, which are shaped over years by their strongest personalities and the politics between them. Did Arteta seek this control or did it coalesce around him? Insiders observe that it adds up to an intense burden on one man who is, after all, still in his first job in management.
Arteta is often described as cold and ruthless. One needs just ask some of his former players to know that is certainly true at times. But he can also be emotional, and at times unpredictable. The strain is evident on the touchline, where he looks as tense as any of his managerial peers, and it is fair to wonder how long it can go on. Jürgen Klopp ran out of energy after nine years at Liverpool. Arteta is into his seventh year at Arsenal.
Changing of the guard
One key moment in Arsenal’s recent history is Edu’s departure to work for Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis in November 2024. Edu helped build the team that now sits atop the Premier League and he had a close relationship with Arteta. Edu knew the club well and his role encompassed all key areas, including the women’s team and academy.
Of even greater significance was the boardroom purge orchestrated by Josh Kroenke in September last year when Lewis, executive vice-chairman, was forced out. In less than 12 months, two of the three key figures at the club had left.
Lewis was asked to stay on the board as a non-exec to help Richard Garlick − Josh’s pick − settle into a new role as chief executive. Lewis declined. Garlick had originally been hired as the director of football operations, and has since risen to become the club’s most high-ranking executive.
Neither Garlick nor the new sporting director, Andrea Berta, appointed by Lewis 12 months ago, rank informally above Arteta, who has a direct line to Josh Kroenke. Berta is there to manage the signing of the players that the Arsenal manager wants. While Edu was a charismatic figure who led the unification of the club’s various departments, Berta is a more reserved presence. He is low-profile around Colney, a dealmaker rather than a sporting director who establishes a culture of performance or camaraderie. Not all members of staff have found that change in personalities to be straightforward.
Arsenal's Eberechi Eze
Arsenal's Eberechi Eze
As a result, Colney is a quieter place, with the first-team regime run by Arteta distinct from the junior teams and other departments. Garlick, owing to the nature of his role, splits his time between the Highbury House office next to the Emirates and the training ground. Berta can be found mostly in his own Colney office.
With Berta installed in time for last summer’s transfer window, Arsenal shifted to a short-term, “win-now” approach. A net spend of £268m went on fees for seven players, an outlay that tested the club’s financial power to its limits.
On top of all the spending, Josh Kroenke then sanctioned a deadline-day deal for left-back Piero Hincapié. The club could not afford a fee. An agreement for a loan was reached with Bayer Leverkusen, with a £45m effective obligation to buy that means the cost of his acquisition on the books is deferred another year.
Berta is now under pressure to make significant sales in the summer, with Telegraph Sport having revealed that the club are looking at a number of options. The financial circumstances mean that very few first-team players are considered untouchable.
Beyond that, Arsenal must start generating revenue through sales of academy players. The imminent exit of Per Mertesacker, the academy director, on a big salary, is considered a chance to grasp that. That was followed by the surprise departure in February of James Ellis, technical director since the summer and a key recruitment figure in the academy and the first team in his five years at the club. Ellis’s exit was Garlick’s decision, but it also took away another experienced figure from Colney.
Big shoes to fill
In all, Arsenal have either lost or removed since the summer of 2024: chief executive Venkatesham, sporting director Edu, assistant sporting director Jason Ayto, executive vice-chair Lewis and technical director Ellis. Mertesacker, a long-time friend of Arteta, leaves at the end of the season.
To varying degrees, these were the men who empowered, managed and challenged Arteta. Who does so now? The Kroenkes own the club and have oversight over key decisions but they do not live it day-to-day. Garlick’s ascent has been rapid — from a Premier League exec to Arsenal’s director of football operations to managing director and then chief executive within five years. He is the figure with the most authority and influence, but he is also still establishing himself as the club’s figurehead. Garlick does have extensive experience in the game, having previously occupied director roles at the Premier League and at West Bromwich Albion.
Garlick is effectively Lewis’s successor, and those are big shoes to fill. Lewis had a relationship with Stan Kroenke. He came in during Covid to make sweeping changes to the staff and financing of Kroenke’s takeover. He did deals and he ran the financial compliance, which meant saying no to Arteta on players. There was also one eye on the future and the next epoch for Arsenal that would be on a par with the Emirates move 20 years ago.
Josh Kroenke
Josh Kroenke
The Kroenkes have, as per the club’s most recent financial results, invested £336m since assuming full control in 2018, with annual losses for each of the last seven years. That is neither sustainable nor the Kroenkes’ preference. As costs rise, Premier League rights fees flatline and wages surge, the club have to find another way of generating revenue. Should Arteta sign a new deal, the Arsenal manager will, as is his nature, demand improvement. He always wants more. But how will the club pay for it, and what happens if they can’t?
Building for the future
Living within the club’s means has been a key factor in the Kroenke ownership. They are not part of a multi-club group. Arteta has consistently outperformed Arsenal’s wage bill, variously fourth or fifth in the Premier League. Commercially the club have powered forward under Juliet Slot, who has taken fire from fans over ticketing issues but has continuously delivered the deals that have helped pay for Arteta’s squad improvements. The club’s merchandise sales have set new benchmarks.
In the long term, Arsenal have only two viable strategies for expanding revenue. The first is a cash-positive, player-sale approach − both first team and academy. Player sales have been a blind spot for the club for years. The sale of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to Liverpool in 2017 for £35m remains their most lucrative disposal.
Max Dowman (left) is being guided by Mikel Arteta (John Walton/PA)
Max Dowman (left) is being guided by Mikel Arteta (John Walton/PA)
Arsenal’s academy has one of the strongest brands in world football and the development of Bukayo Saka and now Max Dowman has reinforced that. But selling better players more regularly, as done by Manchester City and Chelsea, will require investment in fees and, ultimately, wages to acquire the best English 14-year-olds. In the academy game, it costs money to start the process of generating funds.
The second is a massive expansion of the Emirates, which would effectively be a stadium rebuild, requiring two years away, most likely at Wembley. Telegraph Sport reported in October that the club had examined the possibility of raising the capacity beyond 70,000 by changing the gradient of the stands to accommodate more seats. Since then, the indication is that the Kroenkes are not prepared to shoulder the investment.
All these are long-term aims which will require strategic thinking, and even some short-term pain, in order to be realised. At the other end of the scale, in the here and now, Arteta stands on the brink of what might be Arsenal’s greatest season and is not thinking much beyond Sunday’s final and the FA Cup quarter-final next month.
At the end of the season these two competing priorities will meet. Arteta’s future will have to be secured, with all the guarantees he will need that this was not a one-off. The club will have to reconcile Arteta’s ambition with the parameters of their own wealth, as dictated by the Kroenkes, and how they might be able to grow those revenues in the future. But who is the key figure who will tell Arteta what is possible and what is not?
In the hierarchy, that can only be Josh Kroenke, who spends most of his time in the United States and does not have the kind of detailed understanding of European football-specific issues, like cost controls, that others might. He cannot give Arteta everything he wants, and equally he will not wish to lose the man who has delivered what could be the greatest season of the Kroenke years. If they get there it will have been a long, hard road to the title for Arsenal. And once they arrive, a new set of challenges unfold immediately.