Speaking on his YouTube channel, Rio Ferdinand has been discussing Arsenal and the impact Mikel Arteta has had at that football club.
After four seasons in charge, Arteta has finally managed to get a real grip on this Arsenal team, and they’re now flying high at the top of the table.
However, as every Arsenal fan will attest to, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the Gunners under Arteta. They finished eighth in his first two seasons before finishing fifth last term.
There was a real chance that Arteta was going to be sacked on a number of occasions, including at the end of last season after missing out on the Champions League, but luckily, Arsenal stuck by him.
When discussing the hypothetical scenario where Arteta was sacked in the summer, Ferdinand stated that the north London club wouldn’t have signed either Gabriel Jesus or Oleksandr Zinchenko without Arteta.
If Arteta had gone
Ferdinand discussed the Spaniard and his two summer signings.
“He’s put foundations in place. They obviously saw him and the deals he had in place and lined up where he could improve the team. If he’s sat there and gone ‘I know I have deals done for Jesus and Zinchenko.’ Do they come if Arteta is there?” Ferdinand said.
“If he goes in the summer you don’t get Zinchenko and you don’t get Jesus.”
His pull
To be fair, Ferdinand may be right here.
Arsenal were able to sign both Zinchenko and Jesus with relative ease due to the fact that they both knew Arteta very well from his time at Manchester City, and with another manager on board, that would not have been the case.
Arteta got a lot wrong in his first few years, but the arrivals of Jesus and Zinchenko were certainly two things he got very right.
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