LONDON — Arsenal are in the process of finalising a new long-term contract for manager Mikel Arteta, with well-placed sources indicating discussions have moved forward recently and confidence is high that the Spaniard will renew. The expected agreement would make Arteta one of the best-paid managers in world football, significantly improving on his current deal worth £10m a season plus an extra £5m upon Champions League qualification, which now has just nine months left to run.
Arteta moved unequivocally last month to remove any lingering doubt over his future, saying: "Everybody feels comfortable that the timing of the contract is not going to be an issue because my will certainly is to be here and I'm very happy here. My feeling from the club is the same one. That's why everyone is doing things in a very organic way." Arsenal chief executive Richard Garlick has also said it was merely a "matter of time" before the new long-term deal was confirmed.
Appointed in December 2019, Arteta has transformed Arsenal from a club that had lost its Champions League status into Premier League champions for the first time in 22 years last season. They are now overwhelming favourites to retain the domestic crown and are fancied to win a first-ever Champions League this season. Like Arsene Wenger before him, Arteta is categorically the most influential figure from a football perspective at the club, with nothing happening from a first-team perspective without his approval — he was at the forefront of the club's charm offensive when Arsenal tried to sign Julian Alvarez and Vinicius Jr last month.
The squad has flourished under his tutelage and, with an average age of 26.2 years, is one of the oldest in the Premier League and primed to build a legacy. Beyond the new financial terms, Arsenal are buying into Arteta's vision. Summer arrivals Bruno Guimaraes and Ezri Konsa were sizeable investments given both turn 30 next year, while the albeit failed pursuits of Vinicius Jr and Alvarez provided evidence that the club's American owners are willing to spend heavily on elite talent — ambition Arteta is understood to have made clear he wanted to see as talks progressed.
Arteta's six years at the Emirates already make him the longest-serving manager in the Premier League and EFL by some distance, and his new deal will take him closer to a decade in north London. One day Spain may come calling, and a return to his homeland could attract him, although he knows he is unlikely to be afforded the same authority at either Real Madrid or Barcelona — clubs historically entrenched in internal politics — than he has now. At this moment, the attraction for Arteta remains with Arsenal, with no signs of him taking his foot off the gas.