Mikel Arteta Opens Up On Tottenham Job Offer

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has shown the reason he turned down an offer to join Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham coaching staff after retiring from playing..

The Spaniard hung up his boots at the conclusion of the 2015 / 16 season and was flooded with offers to walk into coaching, eventually joining Pep Guardiola’s staff at Manchester City.

Yet another offer to Arteta came from the Spurs where former PSG teammate and good friend Pochettino was eager to add the former Gunners midfielder to his coaching ranks.

However when asked in case he came close to signing for Tottenham so shortly after ending his playing career at Arsenal, Arteta replied: “No. Since I was 18 years old, my relationship with Mauricio has been very special and I always say that he was just like my dad in football.

“I have a remarkable relationship with him, but regrettably for my experience as a player he would have been a trainer for Spurs and I was right here at that time.” That relationship doesn’t change, but it wasn’t the case when I was about to join the Spurs.

The stock of Arteta as a coach grew quickly after going to City, and was among the final candidates to replace Arsene Wenger at Arsenal in 2018, but Unai Emery received the nod instead.

Emery lasted little more than a year at the Emirates Stadium and the Gunners will then nominate Arteta as their brand new head coach in December 2019, stepping up his status to manager adhering to their FA Cup victory at the conclusion of that very same time period.

Arteta looks set to guide Arsenal back into the Champions League for the very first time since 2017 and they are able to secure their top four places with a win over Tottenham on Thursday..