'You can buy into what Arteta's selling'

During a wide-ranging interview, Arsenal co-chairman Josh Kroenke has reflected on his relationship with manager Mikel Arteta and how the club picked him. Giving a manager their first senior job in football is always a risk, but Kroenke says Arteta's character made it clear that he was the right candidate to succeed Unai Emery in December 2019. "Anybody that gets a chance to be around Mikel, you can buy into what he's selling pretty easily," Kroenke said.

By Jason Griffith for PeeDeeWire

Yahoo Sports reports that During a wide-ranging interview, Arsenal co-chairman Josh Kroenke has reflected on his relationship with manager Mikel Arteta and how the club picked him.

Giving a manager their first senior job in football is always a risk, but Kroenke says Arteta's character made it clear that he was the right candidate to succeed Unai Emery in December 2019.

"Anybody that gets a chance to be around Mikel, you can buy into what he's selling pretty easily," Kroenke said.

"So I don't want to give myself or my father [Stan Kroenke, founder and chairman of KSE and co-chair of Arsenal] any credit.

"I think Mikel and his staff and our players are the ones that earned those rights to have the patience in those moments by the amount of work and energy they were putting in behind the scenes." Arteta won the 2020 FA Cup but finished eighth in a league affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, which meant games were played behind closed doors.

"I don't know if I would ever acknowledge it, or Mikel or anybody - there was something about Mikel having a little bit of what I would say 'space' during Covid when there weren't fans around." Kroenke said.