Mikel Arteta has, as expected, put pen to paper on a brand new deal that’ll keep him at Arsenal through the decade. It’s a 4-year deal; I’ve been told it’s between £20m / £25m, making him the highest-paid manager in the world (on the books).
Does he deserve that money? You’re damn right he does. He’s the best coach, bar none. He took Arsenal from the depths of banter-era despair and powered us through to the promised land of becoming Premier League winners.
I said before he joined he could be generational, which took lots of flack during those first 18 months, but guess what… I was right, he is generational, and the guilty verdicts of Manchester City make his success even more impressive. The sweetness of beating a juiced opponent is more diabetes-inducing than an American dirty soda. 5th highest wage bill, all the money Arsenal used was clean, and we crushed the life out of the Premier League last season.
If this tenure were on the vegetable aisle at Waitrose, you’d best believe we’d be in the organic section. The purest-tasting success in the game. Serve it on a table that’s on the damn farm. Mikel Arteta is the best on the planet, he’s ours, and we have 4 more years to enjoy what he has to offer.
This deal ties in with the crescendo of a squad that is entering its prime years. Our best players are in or entering peak years. This is what you build towards, it’s important to look after the future, but this moment is about capitalising on the hard work and making sure we max out the trophy stretch… because in sport, you just never know when a time period like this is going to come again.
You can have the greatest manager there is, and hit a stretch of bad luck with signings, coaches, and injuries and never get to this phase. Think of some of the dodged bullets. Mudryk, Lisandro Martínez, Vlahović, Šeško (yep), Caicedo, Maddison… then think of some of the consolation prizes that kept notching us towards higher levels. Zinchenko, Ramsdale, Jesus in the first batch, Raya, Declan, Kai, Timber in the next lot. But, at the heart of all of the progress was always a manager that glued these players to a system that was the star of the show. Arsenal had horrendous injuries last season, injuries that would have ended most title campaigns in December… yet the system delivered us the win we were waiting for.
Arteta the manager, there’s no one better. He’s the savage we prayed for. A man of class. Someone who understood our weaknesses because he’d captained us during some of the darker times over the past 20 years. He recognised that if you want to win things, you need big characters, so he exited the Mesut Özils of the world. You need young guns who’d die for the cause, so he aged down and made players like Bukayo and Saliba the franchise names. He knew you needed bullies that understood control and discipline had to mesh with dominance, so he signed names like Declan Rice. He also understood that technical skill, both with feet, and in the mind, was the secret ingredient. Arsenal can play any system, anywhere, at any time… and always be the favourite to win.
One of his greatest achievements was putting his career on the line by demanding more from our ownership group. Some managers would prefer to self-preserve than risk it all by demanding the money to compete. Arteta demanded the money, showed that with money, his system got better and better… and now he’s inking deals on the understanding what first and foremost, he has to be able to compete with the biggest clubs in the world for the biggest players. I love that. He’s just a fan, like you and me.
What we are witnessing is truly special. This is my second go-around with success, and I will treasure it. I will enjoy these next 4 years because I suspect they will be Arteta’s last before he takes on a new challenge. He’s a club legend, he won the biggest prize against the odds, so let’s get behind the plans for another 4 years. More Premier Leagues, more cup wins, and a historic first ever Champions League. This next phase, I suspect, is when Arteta becomes Arsenal’s greatest ever manager.
Have a great day. See you in the comments. Podcast coming later tonight. x