Pundit Simon Jordan has expressed his surprise at Arsenal’s decision to appoint Mikel Arteta as their new manager.
Unai Emery was sacked earlier this month and following weeks of speculation, the former midfielder for the Gunners joined the club on a long-term deal.
Despite having worked alongside Pep Guardiola for several years at Manchester City, Arteta has no first-team managerial experience, leading some to question the London club’s decision to hand Arteta the job.
Former Crystal Palace chairman Jordan is one such person, who admits that he is surprised that Arsenal didn’t target a manager with a larger wealth of experience than the Spaniard.
Speaking on talkSPORT, Jordan said:
I expected that they would go for an out of the box, top of the range, fully fledged manager, to be able to bridge the gap between where they are and where they want to be.
That being said, changing direction and looking at someone who brings fresh ideas… you are never going to know what Mikel Arteta is going to do until you give him that opportunity.
You could be sitting in the eye of a storm, the same way David Dein was with the unknown Arsene Wenger – but he was managing and coaching in Japan and had been managing in France.
But this guy is a different animal completely. I don’t care if he was part of a schooled tree that Barcelona once had, I don’t care if he worked for Pep Guardiola – he has to do it on his own.
That is just part and parcel of the mythology that gets perpetuated by football: ‘he worked for him so that makes him good’.
When it comes to management you are on an island; you are on your own putting your team together and managing your players. It’s a completely different dynamic to being a No.2.
But he is very well revered and you could see Guardiola did not want to lose him.
Arteta will kick-off his Arsenal tenure against Bournemouth this afternoon, when his side travel to Dean Court.
Read Arsenal Verdict
Arsenal’s decision to appoint Arteta was a risky one to be sure, but they aren’t the only club to have made a like-minded decision in recent years.
Rangers appointed Steven Gerrard with no senior managerial experience, and while Frank Lampard and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer did manage before, they both had little or no experience at the top level.
Arteta has big potential to be a great manager in the future, if the hype around his coaching ability is anything to be believed. The Gunners needed a change of pace, and someone as tactically astute and calculated as Arteta could be the answer.
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