Pep Guardiola’s first addition to his backroom staff at Manchester City could be Arsenal midfielder and captain Mikel Arteta.

That’s according to The Times, but would be a cause of some concern for Arsenal and for Arsène Wenger, who has already confessed he sees Arteta as someone capable of having a role at the club in the future.

For a few seasons, Arteta was superb at the base of the Arsenal midfield but his legs have let him down after a lot of football as he entered his thirties. Now 33, he is rarely fit to play and has been thinking about life in professional football after retirement as a player. With such a fantastic footballing brain, the midfielder clearly sees himself going into coaching, but would it have to be away from Arsenal?

Arteta knows Guardiola and shares a lot of similarities with the current Bayern Munich boss, including his role and position as a player, plus the fact they both came through Barcelona’s La Masia complex.

Seen as the great tactical mind of the modern game, working for and learning from Guardiola could be too much to reject for an ambitious guy like the Arsenal captain, but if he does leave you would have to wonder whether or not Arsenal could have done more to keep him.

Currently taking his badges and carrying out training sessions with some of Arsenal’s youth teams, there’s no doubt where Arteta envisages his career going. The question is whether or not it will be with Arsenal.