Arteta to ‘wave goodbye’ to Arsenal with chance to replace Guardiola at Man City ‘impossible to resist’

Manchester City have ‘identified’ Mikel Arteta as their outstanding choice to lead the club when Pep Guardiola walks away in the summer of 2025 after a report revealed the strong reasons behind why the Arsenal manager will leave for the Etihad.

Spanish tactitian Guardiola is rightly regarded as one of the greatest coaches of all time, having left an incredible impression on the three clubs he has managed. Having led Manchester City to the Treble last season, he is now on course to win the Double this time around with only a win over Manchester United in Saturday’s FA Cup final standing in his way.

Having wrapped up a sixth Premier League title in the last seven seasons, success on Saturday will mean Guardiola as a manager has won an incredible 37 career honours, with his total at the Etihad set to reach a potentially-unmatchable 16 major trophies.

However, with his current deal coming to an end at the end of the 2024/25 campaign, there is a growing school of thought that suggests Guardiola will walk away at the end of that arrangement and enjoy a long overdue rest from the game.

With Jack Grealish earlier this season revealing that, in his quest to be the best, Guardiola regularly works 18-20 hour days, seven days a week, it is little wonder that the 53-year-old could well be running out of steam.

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And with Guardiola himself suggesting he is nearer the end than the beginning of his cycle at the Etihad, speculation is beginning to grow over whom may succeed him in the Etihad dug-out.

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“The reality is I am closer to leaving than staying,” Guardiola stated after wrapping up the Premier League title with a 3-1 win over West Ham on Sunday.

“We have talked with the club – my feeling is that I want to stay now. I will stay next season and during the season we will talk. But eight or nine years – we will see.”

Asked what is left for him to achieve and if he felt he has  “completed English football”, Guardiola added: “I had that season last year after [winning the Champions League to complete the Treble in] Istanbul. I said: ‘It’s over, there’s nothing left.’ But I have a contract, I’m still here.

“Some of the moments I’m a bit tired but some of the moments I love and we are here winning games, looking good with new players. I started to think about [how] no one had done four in a row [so] why don’t we try? And now I feel it’s done, so what next? FA Cup [final against United on Saturday].

“Gary Lineker told me that no team has done back to back Premier Leagues and FA Cups.

“What I want is for my players to enjoy two or three days and then we have two days to prepare the final but right now I don’t know what exactly the motivation is to do it because it’s difficult to find it when everything is done.

“But knowing the players and myself I know that when we are there we will say why should we not win today? Why should we not work as much as possible to do what we have to do? And I know we are going to do it.”

Mikel Arteta ‘closer to Man City than he is Arsenal’

In light of those comments, Fabrizio Romano has revealed it is widely expected that Guardiola will indeed walk away from City come next summer, leaving the Blues with the unenviable task of landing on a man who can replicate his success.

Incredibly, rather than taking a break from the game, reports in Spain claim Guardiola is ready to step out of the frying pan and into the fire by agreeing a sentimental return to former club Barcelona with immediate effect.

Those same reports now also state that City chiefs have landed on Arteta as the ideal candidate to replace him at the Etihad, having been wowed by the work he has done with Arsenal since leaving his role as Guardiola’s No 2 back in 2019.

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In those four and a half years, Arteta has transformed the Gunners into Champions League quarter-finalists and successive Premier League runners-up, taking City all the way to a final day of the season battle this time around.

And after placing him at the top of their wanted list as Guardiola’s successor, it’s claimed Arteta is now ‘closer to Manchester City than staying at Arsenal’ with the latter’s deal at the Emirates Stadium also due to expire in summer 2025.

The report adds that ‘despite the attempts that the board has made to ensure that he stays at the Emirates Stadium for a long time, so far they have all been fruitless.

‘He has not seemed particularly convinced with this option, and it seems that he has decided to start a new adventure in a club that guarantees him a higher budget, and above all, much more freedom when it comes to making the squad.’

Arteta to bid farewell to Gunners?

And it’s now claimed that, as a result, the project at Man City is seen as far more convincing and striking to Arteta’ who will ‘wave goodbye’ to Arsenal and with the Etihad hotseat seen as ‘impossible to resist’.

Furthermore, it’s stated that Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano are ‘convinced’ the 42-year-old is the ‘best possible candidate to continue with the project that Pep will leave behind next year’.

Speaking before Arsenal’s final Premier League game of the season at home to Everton, Arteta made clear he was willing to discuss a new deal at the Emirates Stadium over the summer.

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Arteta said: “That’s something that after the season, or whenever the right time is, we will talk and sit down. What is important is to win now, to keep believing that we can continue to win. That’s the important thing.

“Whatever happens, it will be very emotional on the day [against Everton]. It’s probably not the right moment to make any conclusions but afterwards we will have time to reflect.

“You have to go through the season we have to come to the point we have done and try to understand why. We have to find the ‘why’ and the ‘how’, we are going to do the next bit. That’s more important.”

Arteta has a 59.05 win percentage record at Arsenal, claiming victories in 137 of his 232 games in charge.

Guardiola, by comparison, has won an unbelievable 343 of his 471 games in charge of City – giving him a record of 72.82%.