- Title: Arteta unveiled as Arsenal manager and feels 'back home'
- Date: 20th December 2019
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (DECEMBER 20, 2019) (REUTERS) ARSENAL MANAGER, MIKEL ARTETA, WALKS TOWARDS ARSENAL SHIRT AND HOLDS IT UP ARTETA HOLDING ARSENAL SHIRT ARTETA SITTING DOWN AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARSENAL MANAGER, MIKEL ARTETA, SAYING ON HOW IT FEELS TO RETURN TO ARSENAL: "I feel back home. I'm extremely happy and proud to have been given the opportunity to be the manager of this football club. I've been preparing for a few years for this challenge to come. I know the expectations, I know the level and I know the stature of this club and what it deserves. So, I'm ready for that challenge and I can't wait to start working with the players and everybody here at the club but I've got a good vibe. I'm sensing a good energy today since I walk in at London Colney, so it's giving me a bit more energy and I feel so happy I can't say any other thing." NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARSENAL MANAGER, MIKEL ARTETA, SAYING ABOUT WHAT IDEAS HE WILL BRING TO ARSENAL: "Well, I have my ideas that I would like to keep to myself because I have to collaborate them when I see them act, when I see them behave, when I see them live together. I want to do my things my way by convincing them that it is the right way for everybody to live better. Everybody has to respect each other first of all and I want people who is accountable for what I am asking them to do. I don't want people hiding, I want people taking responsibility for their jobs, and I want people who delivers passion and energy to the football club. Anyone who doesn't buy into this, or has a negative effect or whatever is not good enough for this environment and this culture. So, there are things to change absolutely because they are not performing at the level we expect them to but we have to help them and to help them I need to know what's happening, I need to understand how they're feeling, what they're lacking, you know. If I get to reach that point then I can help them and then they will trust me and then they will follow me." ARTETA AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARSENAL MANAGER, MIKEL ARTETA, SAYING WHAT IT IS LIKE TO RETURN AFTER YEARS AWAY FROM ARSENAL: "It was strange since leaving four or five years ago obviously in a different role, in a different position. The day I left and I made a decision to leave this football club I said to the people that I'm going outside, I'm going to learn, I'm going to get prepared and hopefully one day I can come back here when I feel that I'm ready to make that step. I have so much respect for this football club that if I didn't feel that I was ready and prepared for this I wouldn't be sitting in this chair." ARTETA AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARSENAL MANAGER, MIKEL ARTETA, SAYING ABOUT WHAT HE WANTS TO BRING TO ARSENAL: "The first thing is a little bit to change the energy. I feel last week I was here with Manchester City and I was a little bit down after the game when I felt what was going on so we have to try and engage everybody. I should try to convince the players, what I want to do, how I want to do it. They have to start accepting a different process, a different way of thinking, and I want to get the staff and everybody at the club with the same mindset. We have to build a culture that has to sustain the rest. If we don't have the right culture, then difficult moments the tree's going to shake. So, my job is to convince everybody this is how we're going to live, and if you are going to be part of this organisation it has to be on these terms and in this way and after that we can talk about other things. Obviously now we need an immediate impact, we need to start winning games, we need to start to raise the level of confidence of the players. Finally, we need the fans. We need to engage them. We need to be able to transmit with our behaviours, our intention, what we want to bring to this football club and I think that's the only way where if we give them they will give us a little bit and certainly we will have to feel that connection. We need to plug these two things together, they're so powerful." ARTETA AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARSENAL MANAGER, MIKEL ARTETA, SAYING ABOUT WHAT HE LEARNED FROM WORKING WITH PEP GUARDIOLA: "What I've learned mostly is that you have to be ruthless and you have to be consistent and you have to fit every day the culture of the club to create a winning mentality and to sustain it is even harder, so every day is important. Every act is important, every word of the organisation is important. His work rate is incredible. His inspiration to people is incredible. But for me the secret is that the people and players and staff have to believe what they are trying to deliver, you have to be able to transmit it and people will buy into that. And when they do that then you are a team, everybody is together and united we will be strong." ARTETA LEAVING NEWS CONFERENCE
- Embargoed: 3rd January 2020 17:46
- Keywords: Arsenal BPL EPL Manchester City Mikel Arteta Pep Guardiola Premier League Unai Emery football news conference soccer
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK
- City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Soccer,Sport
- Reuters ID: LVA001BAS7I9R
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: New Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta said he was confident he would have the London club challenging for top honours again and asked for patience after being appointed head coach on a 3-1/2-year contract on Friday (December 20).
Arteta, who made 149 appearances for Arsenal between 2011 and 2016 before joining Manchester City's coaching staff as Pep Guardiola's assistant, replaces fellow Spaniard Unai Emery at the Emirates Stadium, and warned the squad that if they were a negative presence they would not be staying around the club.
Arsenal are 10th in the Premier League table, seven points behind fourth-placed Chelsea, after five victories in 17 matches this season and travel to 16th-placed Everton for Saturday's early kickoff.
Emery was sacked last month after Arsenal's 2-1 Europa League home defeat by Eintracht Frankfurt which extended their winless run in all competitions to seven games, their worst streak since February 1992 under George Graham.
Arteta, who has never managed a club before, was named by British media as one of the candidates in the running to replace former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger in 2018 before the club appointed Emery.
The 37-year-old has enjoyed great success at City, assisting Pep Guardiola as he guided the club to successive league titles.
Arteta said he learned from Guardiola that he had to be 'ruthless' and praised his former boss' 'incredible workrate'.
Guardiola wished his former assistant success in his new job.
"I'm pretty sure he will do a great job," Guardiola said. "He decided to move there. You cannot stop it, (you must) follow your dreams and Arsenal was a big part of his career."
Arsenal's head of football Raul Sanllehi said Arteta stood out as the perfect person among several top-class candidates.
"We look forward to him getting down to work and bringing the best out of our squad as we work to get our season back on track," he said.
After Arsenal's 3-0 league defeat by Manchester City on Sunday, interim boss Freddie Ljungberg urged the club to make a quick decision on their next permanent manager.
Arsenal director Josh Kroenke, son of the club's majority owner Stan Kroenke, and Sanllehi both thanked Ljungberg for his three-week stewardship.
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