MIKEL ARTETA is now finding out that life as Arsenal boss is not all it is cracked up to be.
Only six months into his first manager’s job, he is already wondering if he has been sold a pup by the Emirates executives.
Mikel Arteta admits his fears that Arsenal won’t be able to compete with big-spending rivals Chelsea and Manchester UnitedCredit: Getty Images – Getty
The Gunners face a daunting first trip to Manchester CityCredit: Getty Images – Getty
When he accepted the opportunity to replace Unai Emery shortly before Christmas, he thought he was returning to a football superpower.
Suddenly Arteta realises he will be working with one arm tied behind his back.
Chelsea have already launched a spending spree and Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool are certain to follow suit.
But Arsenal are unlikely to be joining the trolley dash — as Arteta faces up to the prospect of being locked out of the transfer market by his club’s escalating financial crisis.
Ahead of tomorrow’s return to Prem action at the Etihad, Arteta admits: “The fact we’ve not been in the Champions League for the past three seasons has put an enormous amount of financial pressure on the club.
“We haven’t achieved the goals we wanted in that time — there is a reason for that.
“We’re trying to put a plan together to improve what we have.
“If we stand still, the gap to the top teams will become bigger and bigger.
The fact we’ve not been in the Champions League for the past three seasons has put an enormous amount of financial pressure on the club
Mikel Arteta
“I haven’t come here to accept that, so now the challenge is to improve the squad in the right positions to give us the best chance to compete.
“The level of the big teams in this country is getting higher every year and if we want to compete with them we have to change straight away.”
Persuading owner Stan Kroenke to bankroll upgrades in the current climate is going to be nigh on impossible.
Arsenal’s bean counters have calculated that the club has lost around £150million over the past three years as a result of playing in the Europa League instead of the Champions League.
Now there is a real danger that they could miss out on European qualification altogether after suffering their first annual financial loss since 2002.
Arteta and the majority of the playing squad have already accepted a 12.5 percent pay cut to help the club cope with a substantial loss of TV revenue and gate money.
But further belt-tightening will be required and Arteta admits: “The plans I had three months ago obviously didn’t take into account the coronavirus and all the side effects that’s had.
“We know what we have to do to improve the team but whether we’ll still be able to do that in the way we want will be a different story.”
Arsenal are curently ninth in the Premier League table, five points behind fifth-placed Manchester United with a game in hand.
And Arteta believes it is still possible for his players to secure Champions League qualification despite half of their remaining ten Premier League fixtures being against teams currently above them in the table.
He says: “We know that the way we finish the season can relax the financial position that we’re in but we have to go game by game.
“We can’t achieve anything in one or two matches. It’s a ten-game process and we know the difficulty of achieving the target because there are a lot of other clubs in this fight.
“But we have to give it a go and believe that we can do it.”
The last time Arsenal won away to one of their top-six rivals was against Manchester City in January 2015 – when Arteta was still playing for the Gunners.
He says: “A club like Arsenal cannot go that long without winning. We have to go to these grounds with the mentality to win and that’s how we’ll travel to City.
“We know how good they are but we can only focus on what we can do and on what we can control.
“My focus right now is just to improve the players we already have, get the results to give us the best possible chance to get into Europe and then convince the players that this is the right environment for them.”
Arteta has already made it clear that he is desperate for captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and teenage winger Bukayo Saka to sign new Arsenal contracts.
And he is just as keen to secure the future of veteran defender David Luiz and has urged the club to trigger the 12-month extension to the Brazilian’s contract which expires at the end of this month.
He said: “I am really happy with David and I want to keep him here.
“He’s been a key role model for me since I’ve been here. I like what he produces on the pitch and I like his influence around the players and the club.
“I’d love him to stay.”
Mikel Arteta says Pep Guardiola has been an ‘enormous influence’ on him ahead of Arsenal vs Man City
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
