Mikel Arteta was previously on Everton's Radar before he chose Arsenal with the Toffees who, instead, hire Carlo Ancelotti, who has achieved huge things since he left Goodison Park
In December 2019, Everton and Arsenal were both left behind with management vacancies. The Merseysiders had stalled under Farhad Moshiri with his ambitions that were not supported by versions on the field, while the Gunners were in the risk of becoming giants.
The decisions of their hierarchies would be huge. Names had risen over, including one from Carlo Ancelotti, who was no longer work that was fired by Napoli at the beginning of December. It meant that a Champions League winner was on the market three times. Arsenal seemed like a logical fit with the two big names that came together. Instead, the Gunners went as far as possible to the other of the spectrum and hire a man who had never managed a competition in his life.
Mikel Arteta had performed his tutorship under Pep Guardiola, won consecutive Premier League titles and was hungry to get out yourself. The Spaniard had played for Everton and the Gunners and on the way to Goodison Park was perhaps the more logical first step.
So when Arsenal mentioned Arteta and Everton, Ancelotti hired a day later, many wondered if both clubs had gone for the wrong man. Marcel Brands was then part of the hierarchy in Goodison Park and he had hit the Arteta drum during meetings.
The former football director has revealed that he “moved heaven and earth” to try to name Arteta and to keep meetings with the then city assistant, see him as the long -term man to lead the toffees.
“He is of course also a former player. I spent the whole evening in his house and I saw him as the ideal man for us,” he told the Dutch Outlet Socernews earlier. “I immediately saw a top trainer. At that moment he was still an assistant of Pep Guardiola and he was busy with other things. But you saw that he was a top trainer. I only heard positive things. Also within the club Everton.
“Then I was at his house to sound him and I was so excited. So well prepared, and that passion came out everywhere. His mouth, his nose and his ears. I thought this is the trainer, but for the long term.”
Despite his enthusiasm, the owner of Everton was a fixed experience a must – and that is why Ancelotti was finally pursued. Arsenal also announced their interest and Arteta took the opportunity to land such a job despite the fact that they did not have a previous pedigree.
“The owner also found that there should be an experienced successor, and although the chairman and I wanted Mikel Arteta, it was ultimately Carlo Ancelotti,” said Brands.
Arteta initially found life difficult in Arsenal because the scale of the work was made clear. He eliminated Ancelotti and Everton 3-2 within a few months after they both played their new role, but the next season the Italian led the Toffees to a rare double above the Gunners.
The only full season of Ancelotti with Everton saw them start well and threaten to get the top four, but only falls short. A highlight was the end of their Anfield Hoodoo, but when Real Madrid was looking for a manager, they gave the Italian the call for the second time and he left for Spain.
In 2017, Bayern Munich – and then two years later Napoli – The stock of Ancelotti was not on the previous heights, but since he went back to Los Blancos, the manager has known as Don Carlo to win two champions competitions and now has a third in his sights – prior to a quarterfinals showdown.
Safe to say that it was Ancelotti, not Everton as a club, who won his in the long term that was appointed at the end of 2019. In the meantime, Arsenal has endured pain in the short term for potential long -term profit and for the first time in a decade, they are title finances who are once happy to just get the top four.
The cynics will point to Arteta who only win one trophy – and that came early in his term of office when they landed the FA Cup five years ago. Since then there have been several almost missers, but Arsenal has not been so competitive for quite some time and much of them is due to Arteta.
If continuity is something to come along, since calling Ancelotti in 2019 Everton is on their fifth manager. In the meantime, Arsenal has grown steadily with Arteta, but the real winner of those decisions six years ago is the Italian, back at the height of European football in his largest job.
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