In an exclusive interview with beIN SPORTS, Arsene Wenger has thrown his weight behind Mikel Arteta to take over from him at the club  and has named five traits that will help him succeed.

Mikel Arteta is the overwhelming favourite with some reports claiming that the deal has already been agreed for the most part with just the finer details to be ironed out.

“Arteta has all the qualities to do the job,” Wenger said. “He was a leader, he has a passion for the game and he knows the club well. He knows what is important at the club and he was captain. Why not?

“I left a lot of experience, people who were with me like Steve Bould and Jens Lehmann.

“That takes a weight off me, because if it doesn’t work I’d have felt responsible for it,” he said.

Steve Bould, however, has no intention of working under Arteta despite being offered a role in the new set-up. He does not want to work under an inexperienced manager, according to reports, and is also said to be weighing up the chance to manage Stoke despite having no direct top level managerial experience himself.

It’s unclear if he’s aware of the hypocrisy of his own position – ‘I won’t work under an inexperienced manager so I’m going to go away and become an inexperienced manager myself’.

Jens Lehmann is another who has been offered a new role at the club and it is thought his position will be clarified considerably under the new head coach.

Arteta, who is said to be finalising the team he wants around him, will reportedly offer Santi Cazorla a role as player-coach.

In Friday’s Telegraph, Jeremy Wilson writes, “Mikel Arteta is closing in on the Arsenal manager’s job, with senior sources at Manchester City now increasingly expecting him to leave.”