Mikel Arteta is admired at Manchester City as a potential successor to Pep Guardiola, but that switch is reportedly becoming increasingly unlikely.

With Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City contract expiring at the end of the 2024/25 campaign, the club will undoubtedly be considering their options for what to do when the Spaniard eventually leaves.

Given his prior links with City, Mikel Arteta is often touted as a potential option, despite currently managing rival Premier League title challengers Arsenal.

Sam Lee reports for The Athletic that if Guardiola had left City a couple of years ago, they likely would have brought Arteta back as a manager.

During that initial period at Arsenal, Arteta had won an FA Cup but finished outside of the European places in the Premier League, so he didn’t have quite the same reputation in north London as he does now.

But City already knew a lot about Arteta from his time in Manchester, and that FA Cup win would have been further confirmation that he was capable of taking over for them.

Instead, Guardiola remained at City, and Arteta continued to lay down his roots with Arsenal.

Lee claims it would be harder now to see Arteta making the same switch, even if he is still admired and considered an option at City.

The one factor that might work in City’s favour is that Arteta currently has a contract expiring at the same time as Guardiola’s – summer 2025.

But you’d expect Arsenal to address that situation at some point over the next year, should things continue to go well for the team.