Mikel Arteta believes that the foundations laid at Arsenal by Arsene Wenger will ultimately allow him to succeed at the club.

Arsenal midfielder Mikel Arteta (L) chats with head coach Arsene Wenger (R) during their training session in Nagoya on July 21, 2013. (TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images)
(TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images)

Arsene Wenger’s plan was always to leave Arsenal in a position from where they could build, but mismanagement after his departure hacked away at many of those foundations, leaving Arsenal looking fragile and broken.

“I think those foundations are in place [for future success],” Arteta told Sky Sports.

“I think those foundations are in place because of people like Arsene and what he did for this football club. When he left, everything didn’t go with him. A lot of things stayed.

“I think the biggest thing that stayed is the way that he was able to educate, and transmit the values and respect and what this club is about. I think he was incredibly good at engaging people to believe in what he and the club were trying to do.

“He did it in a magnificent way because he played really attractive football when he was able to recruit some top talent that just glide together in a generation that just brought a lot of joy and fun to the football world in general and of course to Arsenal supporters.”

I’m not really sure what Arteta means here, which is ironic as he is talking about being able to “educate, and transmit the values and respect and what this club is about.”

That is something Arteta has really struggled with in his time as Arsenal manager.

He says a lot of words, but they rarely mean anything, and while some sort of a plan seems to be emerging now, that was far from the case for the first 18 months or so.

“I can feel what is happening here, and I can feel what is happening with the supporters,” Arteta continued, “with the generation of players that we have here, with everybody that is involved in the organisation.

“I think it is going to be pretty powerful.

“We are in a different moment in our history.

“Every club has to go through different patches, and we went through the patch of the last 18 months with a big covid situation on the back of a lot of instability in the club in the last two or three seasons.

“That’s a difficult mix to suddenly turn things around and build something incredible.

“But I’m a big believer that this had to happen.

“For this club it had to happen – we had to experience this and that’s going to make us much stronger.”