Mikel Arteta lifted the lid on what was his primary point of duty when he took over as manager of Arsenal.
The Spaniard reflected on the disconnection that had grown at North London between the fans and the club under Unai Emery.
His point is evident as the atmosphere had turned toxic during Emery’s final days with Arsenal. There was an open sense of distrust from the club’s hierarchy and that led to players losing a lot of support very quickly. Arteta had to come in and build that cohesive energy once again, very much comparable to Jurgen Klopp’s early days as a Liverpool boss.
“Obviously coming into the club in that moment wasn’t easy, but you mentioned a keyword which is energy,” Arteta told club great Ian Wright in an interview for Adidas (via Onefootball). “I felt that the energy at the training ground, the stadium, wasn’t right for this magnificent club and I’ve been here.
“I was lucky to play here so everybody has to feel first of all in that way and there was a lot of disconnection in many areas and I wanted to bring everybody together. First, to understand how lucky we are to be here and then a very clear direction of where we want to be.”
Arteta did manage to turn the results around slowly to bring Arsenal back to a competitive point. They were 8 points adrift of the fourth spot down in the ninth position. Of course, the remaining games are crucial for their hopes of European qualification but Arteta feels the tackling Coronavirus is the primary goal.
“I think the hardest thing is going to be to educate the players and everybody involved at the training grounds and matchdays that this is different,” he added. “We have to be very strict with the protocols. Common sense will dictate when we can go to the next step and the next step and the next.
“We cannot rush it, we are all aiming to play, we need to play, we are willing to play, it’s important for us, for the society, for the economy. We have that responsibility so we just have to be ready whenever they say go ahead, open that door and hit the gas.”
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