Mikel Arteta Amatriain is the current manager of Arsenal Football Club, having spent a portion of his playing career at the club too, after stints at Barcelona, PSG, Rangers, Real Sociedad, and Everton. His coaching career started as Assistant Coach under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, where Arteta’s style and tactical sense were developed. His coaching days with Arsenal F.C. started in 2019, after he was initially linked with the job in 2018.
Arteta’s early career was a continual training with star or future-star players. The Basque-born Spaniard started his playing career at Antiguoko. He became friends with midfielder Xabi Alonso – future fierce rival in the Merseyside derby – and they played together as a pair regularly. He trained alongside Iniesta and Xavi at Barcelona. It was during his time at Barca he met Pep Guardiola for the first time. At PSG, he played with Mauricio Pocchentino – who wanted him on his coaching staff at Spurs – Jay Jay Okocha, and Ronaldinho. He grew up around greatness both forging his own path.
His first years at Arsenal were tough. If fans were to check the NetBet online casino and sportsbook odds, he was consistently near the favourite to get sacked. However, through recruitment and persistence, Arsenal are now reaping the rewards of Arteta promised.
Player career history
As mentioned, in his youth from 1997 to 1999, he was with Barcelona, playing for Barcelona B from 1999 to 2002 and during that time he was loaned to Paris Saint Germain in 2001- 2002. He then played for the Rangers from 2002 to 2004. From 2004 to 2005 he was with Real Sociedad and was loaned to Everton and then he later joined Everton from 2005 -2011 this brought him to his last team which is Arsenal and he played for them from 2011 to 2016.
He played under a wide variety of coaches. You can see their influence in his coaching style. David Moyes’s dogged rest defence and discipline was exemplary during the first season or two at Arsenal, and has become foundational for a few performances in this most recent season. The fluid, relational attack of Arsene Wenger is also found in Arteta’s team’s attacking structure.
It’s no surprise, though, that arguably the biggest impact on his career was working with Pep Guardiola. The rigid positional build-up is Pep through-and-through, down to the interior positioning of the full backs. That being said, the fluid relational and dribble-heavy attack he’s developed at Arsenal feels different to Pep’s.
Best Moments As A Soccer Player
Making 248 appearances and scoring 41 goals with 42 assists Mikel had some of his best moments at Arsenal, but, over his long career, it’s hard to not include his time at other clubs. Below are a few examples:
- In his 6 seasons with Everton, he scored 27 goals in 162 appearances. He was also well-loved and he left a huge gap when he signed up with Arsenal in 2011. He spent 5 seasons under Arsene Wenger.
- He became captain of Arsenal for the first time in the FA Cup in 2012. This is considered one of the most emotional moments in the team’s history as Arteta wore his captain’s armband. It was so emotional because Arteta was unaware prior to the match and when he entered the changing room he found an armband beside his jersey.
- He lifted back-to-back FA Cups for Arsenal in 2013/14 and 2014/15, with the latter being his first as permanent captain.
- Another great one is his performance against Aston Villa where he took it up a couple of notches with a one-of-the-kind free kick.
Becoming Manager of Arsenal
He was offered a new one-year contract in the 2015/2016 season which was also his final professional football season. After retiring as a player in 2016 he took up the assistant coaching role with Manchester City. He was later appointed as the manager of Arsenal in 2019. In 2020 he became the first player in Arsenal’s history to lift the trophy wearing his captain’s and manager’s hats.