Guernsey Press

Mikel Arteta: Arsene Wenger ‘started the fire’ in his players to become coaches

The likes of Patrick Vieira, Sol Campbell, Thierry Henry and Tony Adams have gone into management after playing under Wenger.

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Mikel Arteta has praised Arsene Wenger with installing the “fire” into his players to want to go on and become managers themselves.

Arsenal boss Arteta welcomes Patrick Vieira’s Crystal Palace to the Emirates Stadium on Monday night, the pair having both captained the Gunners under Wenger.

Vieira won three Premier League titles and four FA Cups during a nine-year stint in Wenger’s midfield and managed New York City FC and Nice before landing the Palace job this summer.

Arteta, meanwhile, returned to Arsenal as head coach in December 2019 having previously worked as an assistant to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.

The likes of Sol Campbell, Thierry Henry, Tony Adams, Remi Garde and Giovanni van Bronckhorst are among the other former Arsenal players to venture into management after playing under Wenger.

“We were all guided in a way, or made to feel in a different way about the game because we had Arsene as a manager,” Arteta said.

Arsene Wenger
Arsene Wenger was Arsenal manager for 22 years (Adam Davy/PA)

Having such an obvious influence as Wenger does have the downside of offering comparisons to be made with the Frenchman but Arteta is not threatened by such scrutiny.

“You have no choice (about comparisons),” he said.

“But if you love what you want to do and you feel capable of achieving what you think you can achieve for that club, then it is your decision to take it up.”

Arteta played under Wenger for five years before retiring in 2016, hanging up his boots and moving to his coaching role at City.

“Everything I have heard about Patrick, whether it was here (at Arsenal) or at City, has always been very positive,” he added.

“When I joined there he had left for one of the sister clubs and he was given the opportunity in New York because they obviously knew what he was capable of doing. People talked really highly of him.”

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