Former club captain Mikel Arteta left Arsenal at the end of last season as a free agent, having spent five seasons at the club.
Arteta joined Arsenal at a desperate time for the club. Originally bought as an attacking midfielder, Arteta’s role was adapted to become more of a holding midfielder to play alongside Arsenal’s talented midfielders.
After a series of injuries and drop in performance levels, however, Arteta looked more towards his future coaching career. Due to this, speculation had begun that Pep Guardiola had wanted the former Everton man to join him at Manchester City.
According to the Mirror, Arteta has now agreed a deal to join Guardiola at City and become one of his backroom staff.
Arteta and Guardiola have links as both were apart of the Barcelona youth academy at the beginning of their careers, with the latter being Arteta’s idol growing up.
The newly retired Arteta, did have an offer from Tottenham Hotspur and the opportunity to remain as a coach at Arsenal. The Spaniard is highly regarded, and is expected to become a very good coach in the future. Although he did leave Arsenal, there is still the possibility of returning to the club in the future, but for now he seems to be joining City.
