Mikel Arteta has admitted he felt “terrified” on his first day in charge of Arsenal. The Gunners hired Arteta five years ago this week and at the time the Spaniard was just 37 years old. Arteta had also never been a manager before and his only coaching experience was working as one of Pep Guardiola’s assistants.
He has since transformed Arsenal into title contenders, but Arteta has confessed he was a bag of nerves at the beginning. “I was probably terrified,” he said. “You haven't coached anybody at the highest level. It was the middle of season, without any preparation, without a coaching staff, you get asked to take this amazing and big job.
“I was looking around at the people making that decision and they were so convinced. First of all, you want to respond to that trust, and I had very strong feelings towards the club. “I just wanted to make sure I didn’t disappoint anybody, that I was capable of doing it. The only way of doing it is to start day by day, to start to experience that, to start to get close to the players and the staff and see it can work.”.
Arteta had a huge task on his hands when he was hired, with a big part of his remit to reshape the culture of the club. The Spaniard gutted the dressing room - terminating several players’ contracts - and he brought in someone to report to him on what the culture at the club was like.
“Well the first thing is understanding what is a good culture and a bad culture,” said Arteta. “To do that what I did was basically ask, through somebody I employed, to give me their opinion of how they feel to work in this football club. Whether its players, as staff, in all kinds of roles, in all kinds of responsibilities.
