It began at 1am on a December night in 2019 in a Manchester suburb. Vinai Venkatesham, Arsenal's managing director at the time, walked out of Mikel Arteta's home having listened to a five-year plan that left him quietly convinced. The club was a mess — bruised by Arsène Wenger's exit, battered further by Unai Emery's brief and unhappy tenure. Arteta, then 36 and still Pep Guardiola's assistant at Manchester City, had no managerial experience. He had charisma, a tidy playing record and a very detailed blueprint. It was, in the words of one Arsenal source, a huge gamble.

Venkatesham did not make it home before the gamble became public knowledge. He was woken early that morning by Arsenal's media chief telling him to check the Sun's website. A photographer had caught him leaving Arteta's house. There was, sources recall, distinct displeasure from Manchester City — noises made at boardroom level. Arteta had not even been appointed yet and the operation had already sprung a leak.

Lucky timing, right money

He was confirmed as head coach a week later, after what those close to the situation describe as several days of fraught negotiations. He stepped out for his first match on Boxing Day at Bournemouth and the prognosis was not encouraging. His five-year plan was honest about how far Arsenal had slipped. He and sporting director Edu wanted a squad of 22 high-quality, tactically flexible players. That required investment — and here, sources say, Arteta was fortunate in his timing.

The Kroenke family had completed their full buyout of the club just two transfer windows earlier, acquiring the stake previously held by Alisher Usmanov. The Kroenkes had long insisted they would invest properly once they held complete control. Most in football dismissed that as deflection. It turned out to be true. "Mikel had money Unai and even Arsène didn't really have," one former club employee told the Guardian. Several senior sources also point to the growing involvement of Josh Kroenke, Stan's son, as critical in those early months — with one suggesting he effectively persuaded the board to open the funding tap when the project needed it most.

Surviving the storm

The early record was hard to defend. FA Cup and Community Shield wins in Arteta's first eight months arrived during the strange, crowd-free pandemic calendar and carried limited weight in the wider conversation. The 2020-21 league campaign was wretched. Arteta looked, from the outside, like a manager on borrowed time. Insiders insist there were never internal conversations about replacing him — the club hierarchy held firm, believing in the process.

Then came the start of the 2021-22 season, which was close to catastrophic. Arsenal lost their opening three Premier League games without scoring. The boos were audible and pointed. The calls from supporters and pundits grew louder. Again, the board did not flinch. That patience, multiple sources say, was the decisive factor. "You had a really driven young manager, bright, well-schooled, ambitious and enthusiastic. You've got the money and you had a board that gave him time," said one former senior employee who was close to Arteta throughout. "He told them it would take five years."

The rebuild takes hold

It did. The squad was restructured, younger players with energy and tactical intelligence were brought in, and Arsenal gradually became a side that could challenge at the very top. What Arteta had sketched out in that Manchester living room at 1am — a cohesive, high-intensity group built on clear identity — slowly became visible on the pitch.

The story, then, is not simply one of a talented manager getting it right from the start. It is a story about institutional nerve. The Kroenkes stayed the course when the noise was deafening. Venkatesham and Edu backed the process when results were ugly. And Arteta, who was told early in his career that joining Guardiola would be the equivalent of a master's degree in coaching, applied everything he had learned to a project that, in its darkest moments, looked unlikely to deliver anything close to what was promised on that December night in 2019.

FAQs

Frequently asked

When did Mikel Arteta become Arsenal manager?
Arteta was appointed Arsenal head coach in December 2019, replacing Unai Emery. His first match in charge was on Boxing Day at Bournemouth.
Why did Arsenal fans boo Arteta?
Arsenal lost their first three Premier League matches of the 2021-22 season without scoring, which prompted audible frustration from supporters at the Emirates. The club held firm and did not consider replacing him.
Who owns Arsenal and did they back Arteta?
Arsenal are owned by the Kroenke family. Multiple senior insiders credit the Kroenkes — and particularly Josh Kroenke — with backing Arteta financially and giving him the time he said he needed to rebuild the squad.