Mikel Arteta: Next Stage Of The Process Is To “Evolve” The Squad This Summer

Mikel Arteta talks in-depth about how he views the ongoing project at Arsenal…

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has reiterated that we’re far from where he wants to take the club given that his ambitions are set at being the No.1 in the world but has noted significant progress has been made on and off the pitch, Stadium Astro reports.

Sitting in 9th place and some distance away from the desired top-four places, there is little tangle evidence to prove that we’re improving under the Spaniard.

We’ve qualified for the Europa League quarter-finals where we’ll meet Slavia Prague and are favourites to progress all the way to the final – winning the competition would see us return to Europe’s premier club competition.

For Arteta, he describes himself as “very analytical” and when overlooking the more specific metrics he favours, he’s adamant that progress has been made.

The former Gunners skipper added that some of the steps forward made cannot be necessarily measured in results, especially when you’re taking into account the functionality of the club as an organisation both on and off the pitch.

Arteta has accepted that he’s currently navigating his first managerial job in trying times given the current pandemic, with his issues exacerbated by having an unbalanced squad that needed trimming.

The boss pointed to the number of transactions the club conducted in the January window which he described as “unprecedented” – which included the termination of Mesut Ozil, Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis’ contracts.

“You had a lot of instability at the club and during that, you still have to improve in a lot of things which is challenging, and I think we have managed to do that,” Arteta said.

“First of all, we need to find stability in all departments – the hierarchy and the squad – and the squad wasn’t in the right balance.

“Now we have the squad in a better balance after making 11 or 12 changes (in January), which is unprecedented, you go to the next summer.

“And now we have to start to evolve the squad, that is very different to balancing your squad. Then we can go to the next level,” Arteta added.

When the 39-year-old states that the squad needs to be “evolved”, one wonders if that’s just a nice way of claiming that we need to add more quality.

There are a number of areas in the team fans believe can be improved upon and our position in the table is, in part, a clear reflection of our lack of quality.

Let’s see what the summer window brings. Hopefully, we enter the window as Europa League winners.