Mikel Arteta’s return to Arsenal as manager has been confirmed after the former midfielder quit his role as No 2 to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.
The appointment comes after Arsenal cancelled Freddie Ljungberg’s Thursday pre-match press conference for the Everton game while a £2million compensation deal was agreed with City following talks this week.
City sources labelled Arsenal’s attitude over the pursuit of Arteta ‘shambolic’ and ‘disrespectful’, although they were never going to stand in the Spaniard’s way.
Arteta said in a statement: ‘This is a huge honour. Arsenal is one of the biggest clubs in the world. We need to be competing for the top trophies in the game and that’s been made very clear to me in my discussions with Stan and Josh Kroenke, and the senior people from the club.
We all know there is a lot of work to be done to achieve that but I am confident we’ll do it. I’m realistic enough to know it won’t happen overnight but the current squad has plenty of talent and there is a great pipeline of young players coming through from the academy.’
