Former Arsenal striker tips Premier League manager to replace Arteta: ‘Need something like that’
Former Premier League striker Jay Bothroyd thinks Arsenal “need” a manager like Andoni Iraola to replace Gunners boss Mikel Arteta.
The Gunners have had another decent season under Arteta but they find themselves in second place in the Premier League table and 11 points adrift of leaders Liverpool, who they have a game in hand on.
In now looks extremely unlikely that Arsenal will be able to catch Arne Slot’s side in the race for the Premier League title and it would mark the third time in three seasons that the Gunners have finished as runners-up.
Manchester City’s terrible season has increased the pressure on Arteta with Arsenal allowing another Premier League side to overtake them after two years of hunting down Pep Guardiola’s men.
Arsenal have been building under Arteta since 2019 and this season was seen as the year that they finally achieved their title aspirations after finishing just two points behind Man City last term.
And now former Arsenal academy star Bothroyd reckons Bournemouth boss Iraola could be the answer for the Gunners if Arteta leaves in the summer.
Bothroyd told the BBC Sport: “When it comes to Iraola and the job that he’s done at Bournemouth with the players and no disrespect to them, but Arsenal need something like that because as much as I am not on that level of saying Arteta out, a lot of people are and who is available that could come to Arsenal?
“Obviously, the one that everyone talks about is Xabi Alonso but it looks like he could go to Real Madrid if Carlo Ancelotti leaves and it is not out of the realms of possibility that if Arteta doesn’t do what he’s supposed to do which is to get trophies then someone like Iraola could be on the hit list for somewhere like Arsenal.”
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Arsenal play Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night in the Premier League as they look to immediately close the gap to Liverpool after losing to West Ham on Saturday.
Arteta said in his pre-match press conference: “It’s been incredibly satisfying to work every day with the players, the coaches and the staff to try to overcome certain situations.
“If somebody tells you at the start of the season that by this time you will have played five times with a red card, over half an hour in each of them, and you have lost this amount of players, what’s the bet you are in the middle of the table at least, and you are out of the Champions League?
“But that’s not the situation, so that tells you the resilience, the resources and the ambition the team and that every individual has, and that time has probably been one of my proudest moments to work, in that sense.
“The problem is when you are there you want more and more. I’m not going to stop – over my dead body that we stop thinking that way and putting everything we possibly can to increase that probability of us winning, being better than the opponent and hitting that performance, those standards constantly, regardless of what happens.”
