"Most important person at Arsenal" | Reaction to Mikel Arteta's new contract

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Arteta's new deal hailed: he is the most important person at Arsenal

The show discusses Mikel Arteta's new long-term contract at Arsenal. The pundits argue he is the most important figure at the club after ending a 22-year league title wait and reconnecting the fans, with sustained success and a Champions League breakthrough now the next challenge.

► Subscribe to Sky Sports News: http://bit.ly/SkySportsNewsSub ► Watch Sky Sports with NOW: https://bit.ly/NOWSkySportsYT Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, The Mirror's John Cross and Sky Sports News reporter Gary Cotterill react to Mikel Arteta signing a new deal at Arsenal. SkySportsNews SkySports arsenal ► For the latest developments on this story: https://qrcode.skysports.com/skysports/topstories ► For the latest transfer news: https://qrcode.skysports.com/skysports/TransferCentre More from Sky Sports on YouTube: ► Sky Sports: http://bit.ly/SkySportsSub ► Sky Sports Boxing: http://bit.ly/SSBoxingSub ► Sky Sports Cricket: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSkyCricket ► Sky Sports Darts: https://bit.ly/SubSkySportsDarts ► Sky Sports Football: http://bit.ly/SSFootballSub ► Sky Sports F1: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSkyF1 ► Sky Sports Golf: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsGolf ► Sky Sports Premier League: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsPL ► Sky Sports Retro: http://bit.ly/SkySportsRetroSub ► Sky Sports WSL: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsWSL ► TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skysportsnews ► X: https://x.com/SkySportsNews ► Website: https://www.skysports.com ► To enquire about licensing Sky Sports content, you can find out more here: https://www.skysports.com/more-sports/news/31754/11434270/license-sky-sports-footage

Transcript

Now though to Arsenal and manager Michel Arteta has signed a new long-term contract to extend his stay with the champions and there's a warning for Arsenal's rivals. Arteta says this is only the beginning of what the club can achieve. Now Arteta's previous deal was due to expire next summer, but the Spaniard who was appointed in 2019 has committed his future to the club until June 2030. Right. Delighted now to welcome the mirror's chief football writer John Cross will join Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank and Gary Kotrol in the conversation. John, welcome along. Great to see you. Let's get straight into it then. This is not really a surprise, is it? We were expecting it, but nevertheless a massive boost for Arsenal. >> Absolutely. Great to be with you um all of you legends there and look fantastic day for Arsenal. Really, I think it's a huge boost. Yes, it wasn't unexpected to put it mildly. It's clearly been well telegraphed for a while now that he'd stay and commit long-term. It takes him over a decade. Without a shadow of a doubt, in my mind, he's the most important person in the building. Um to to end that run of 22 years without a title, it says everything you need to know about Mikuel Arta. His single-mindedness, his determination. I think he really surprised everyone with his first title challenge in 22 23 and then to finally get the team over the line against fantastic opponents and opposition like Manchester City and Liverpool in that time I think speaks volumes about his quality, his character and his determination. His resilience as well. Um he he's really gone from captain to manager and proved his worth and value to the club. He's certainly an unprecedented deal for Arsenal. I think makes him the most uh highly paid manager in the Premier League by some distance and he's worth his waiting gold to Arsenal Football Club make. No doubt about that. >> Uh Jimmy John says he's the most important person in the building. What message do you think this news will send to the rest of the Premier League? I think I think it's uh he is um but I think for the rest of the of the Premier League it is uh yeah it's he he's doing a great job. He is uh he is uh the man who has done it after 22 years. He's done it his way. But more importantly, more importantly, it's it's for the players. The players that he has at Arsenal, they know that he is the boss. They know that he has got the power. He will make that decision. He has got the last say. So, it's it's a big big big day for for Arsenal. It's a big day for the squad, for the players. And uh yeah, it's it's an exciting time and uh I must say well done for Arteta, well done for the club Arsenal and uh it's now the next step and that next step is the hardest thing is sustaining this this this this that is going on is sustaining this success and that is the hardest thing to do. But they are in a great position in a in in a great momentum and in a great way. >> Let me tell you, Jimmy said that through gritted teeth. I have to say [laughter] um this no no. I'm I'm a football lover. Yes. Yes. My heart is blue and white and a little bit of of of red from up north, but not the red from Arsenal. Yeah. Let's not forget Let's not forget that. Yeah. But it's a great story. Yeah, I'm a football lover. I want to see football doing well and he is making football great. So, you have to clap for him. You have to say well done. Uh this a question for for Gary and John, I guess. First of all, Gary, look, you both cover Arsenal and Mik Arteta every single week. Gary to you first of all have you noticed a change in his approach in his demeanor since that title win for the first time in 22 years? >> Well John is Mr. Arsenal of course when it comes to journalists but I've had the pleasure of being going down there quite a lot the last couple of seasons a lot this season and I think it demeanor has changed. He's become more confident now as a winner. I think uh he was described by uh Jimmy Cargo recently as the dawn in terms of he's the one who's questioning bad decisions by a referee's calling out those decisions taking on that on on behalf of himself and his club but also on behalf of other managers in the Premier League. Obviously David Moyes is far more experienced as a Premier League manager than Mika Artetta. But I think given the time he's had had at the club, he's now the senior manager in the Premier League and I just think going forward that will show itself even more. We can tell the confidence I'm sure Johnie down at the training ground among him and the players. They they call it the target on their back and they're enjoying having that target on their back and there's a a new found belief that they can go on and win the Premier League title again and maybe even win the Champions League title. And of course by the end of this contract he'll only been at Arsenal for as long for what 10 11 years but will be the same age or abouts that Arson Wenger was when he joined the club. So achieving that three Premier League titles and maybe going one better and and achieving success in Europe is still on the cards for him. He could well become the modernday best manager that Arsenal ever had. I think that's one of his ambitions as well. >> I think Gary Gary touches on the key word there and that's confidence. I do think you notice it, don't you? I think the pressure was overwhelming and huge on Arsenal last season. And then for them to see that out when everyone was saying, "Oh, you know, there's nerves in the stadium." And there were in there were in um some games, make no mistake about that. And and the pressure on the players and could they do it and then they sort of almost felt they won the title, then threw it away at the Etiad and then won it again. It was it was a remarkable roller coaster ride, but fair play to their um determination and I think um sort of uh real resilience in that title race. I think they absolutely came through it and now I think you can just see a kind of a positivity and I know they lost their last game at Brighton but I think you know that was a bit of a freak freak result. I think Arsenal will be termin to to strike back this weekend but also I just think that eases that pressure. I do feel as if Arteta was so disappointed and upset to lose that Champions League final. I think that will be next in his sights and I think that plays to what Jimmy was saying as well about continuity and continuity and sort of kind of re you know building success, keeping it going because that's what the you know the big clubs of of the recent modern um Premier League era have done like Chelsea, like Manchester City, like like Manchester United and that's the target for Arsenal. They have to have sustained success. That's the mark of brilliance and I think that that is what Arteta will be targeting. There's no you know bigger driver I think in this than Mikuel Arteta himself. He is determined. He's putting the pressure on himself to sustain pressure for for the football club. >> John, you you have spoken to a lot of managers in in the Premier League over the years. How does he compare to them? Oh, I think he's I think he he he he's very very uh single-minded. I think he has certainly taken his time, if you like, Jimmy, to to kind of, you know, put on a on a good front and kind of find his public image. And I think profile these days, you you you know this, it it's so important for a manager to kind of put themselves out there to have a public profile to to be impressive in front of the cameras because it's that connection with the fans. And I tell you what, I think the biggest thing that that Arteta has achieved quite apart from winning the title is that reconnection with the fans. Let's not forget that in December 2019, this club that he inherited that he'd captained previously was broken. It really was. There was a breakdown with the fans. The supporters were really frustrated and annoyed, fed up. They'd had enough. They'd seen the club, you know, sort kind of wander into mediocrity, had missed out on Champions League football, and it you could feel sometimes the tension and anger in the stadium. It was toxic online. It was the matchgoing fan were not happy. It took Arteta a while, but I genuinely think that he really has reconnected those fans in a particularly spectacular and fantastic fashion. I think he's done public messaging. >> I think he's done that through in the way that he conducts himself and that that that comes across in his personality in in interviews that that says to me the importance of how you appear in the media and how you present yourself. And I think he now presents himself with a confidence. Rival fans see it as arrogance. I think he slightly annoys rival fans. But that's no bad thing because you know you're upsetting them because you're being successful. And I think I think more people now buy into him, see where he's coming from, give him the respect that he deserves because he's that title winner. >> Yeah, John. I think obviously winning he's proud of winning. He's proud of winning the Premier League. He's proud of being in the top two for the last four seasons. is the only English club to have managed that in the Premier League. But he's proudest of, I think, is what you say that connection now with the fans. He comes alive, doesn't he, when he talks about that. >> Yeah, he loves to embrace the fan and the atmosphere, doesn't he, in the Emirates, Gary, he really does. He loves that. He loves that opportunity. If they've had a bad result, you know, all of a sudden he'll be talking about bring your fire, bring your passion, get behind the team. And I tell you what, the fans buy into it, don't they? I mean, we've we've, you know, we've all been there at the Emirates where it's been a pretty special occasion where it's been loud, it's been, you know, encouraging, it's been fantastic. And I do think that before Art Teta and even during the early days of Arteta, it's easy to forget just how bad it was. And for him to turn around the fan base, get them behind the team in the way that he has, I think that is his biggest achievement of all. And we should never ever underestimate just how impressive that has been. Just a final question. It's probably to all of you, but I'll start with you, John. Was there a moment for you given how long you've been covering Arsenal and in particular in the Arteta era on or off the pitch when the Arsenal hierarchy thought not only is Michael Arteta the Arsenal manager, but he is the Arsenal project? >> Yeah, I I think it was DHS in 22 23 when he had to make unpopular decisions. you remember that was the season when Arsenal almost had their breakout season um and they suddenly mounted a title challenge from absolutely nowhere. I do think they had quality within the squad but he then you know really got the players behind it built some momentum and also got the fans on side. He harnessed the sort kind of quality that he had. He got Granite Jac's absolute best. you know, what a fantastic achievement that has been. And I do think they've just come back um really and and sort of kind of proved that point. But I think it's it's the way that he's built into the club, the history, and the culture of the club. And that's where I think that the the club view him as much more than just a manager. They view him as part of the package, part of the process. And that's why he they think that he will maintain long-term success. >> That was a season when he was really heavily questioned. press conference in, press conference out by by me, by you, John, regarding the the Ramsdale Ryer decision. He stood by it. He was toughed out. He was getting criticized all over the place. People love Ramdale. He was an England setup. The Arsenal fans loved him. Do you think that underlined at that stage just how determined he was, just how forward thinking he was, and would he be criticized for that kind of decision these days? >> Gary, we could I mean, come on. We both of us thought what what's he doing made some fantastic [laughter] >> sight as well. >> It was mad wasn't it? I mean he honestly Ramdale was fantastic. I remember one game at Anfield where you know Arsenal I think Arsenal ended up drawing 2-2 and he produced this incredible save but all this all the noise was that actually he's still not completely convinced and sure I think when when they'd already gone for RA previously and when they indeed took the plunge and signed him everyone was going how's this going to work Ramdale started the season but I think we all could see the writing on the wall and it didn't take long for him to be ushered out and it was such a brave decision I'm sure that Ramdale probably won't won't see it like that. But the way it has worked out is that Ryer is brings something extra to the team. Great goalkeeper, incredible record and clean sheets and also great distributor from the back and suits the way Arsenal play. Incredibly unpopular decision, but that is the sort of decision and brave decision that Arteta took for the benefit of the team and the club and yes, it's worked out. >> It certainly has. John, thank you for your time. Gary Cotro is leaving us as well. But Jimmy, do not go anywhere. So it's been nearly sevenyear long project for Arteta with Arsenal with plenty of twists and turns as he chased that elusive Premier League crown. Dave Reed can tell us more. Yeah, I wanted to talk a little bit about what what you guys were touching on there, but the uh the turnover of the team and the big decisions that John was talking about there, particularly in goal, but really across the team as Arteta turned Arsenal into one of the strongest sides in Europe. This was the first starting lineup he picked against Bournemouth in 2019. There was the familiar sort of lean towards players from the academy in the S1, but also big players as well at the time. Mesa Özil Pier Emmeryang and Alexandra Lacazette who all obviously ended up moving on. Arsenal have backed Arteta you have to say the signing of Declan Rice for 105 million Arteta's most expensive followed by Brunish and Kai Havtz. Arsenal hadn't sold particularly well over the last few years, but the£6 million pound departure of Gabriel Martinelli over the summer brought in some vital funds for Arsenal and we've tracked the Arsenal net spend by season alongside their league finish. So Arteta only joined in 2019 as we've been talking about. So you can look beyond that first season if you so wish. But if you look at the rest of those seasons in charge, the average per year net spend is looking around £120 million. So they have they have backed Arteta. He has spent money and the signings of Ber Ez Victor Yokesh and Madaweke contributed to that 257 million pounds for the season 202526. They obviously then go on to lift the Premier League title.