Former Chelsea defender now Arsenal player David Luiz has revealed how playing under Mikel Arteta has helped him fulfill his long-term dream of being managed by Manchester City coach, Mikel Arteta. Arteta joined Arsenal in December 2019 as the head coach after the former coach Unai Emery was sacked by the Gunners bosses.
Meanwhile, Mikel Arteta had one time traded his football career in Arsenal as a player from 2011 to 2016. Between that time, he won two FA Cups with Arsenal. Upon retirement in 2016, the 36-year-old Spaniard had about three coaching job offers on the table. He was given a contract to manage the Arsenal academy team by former manager Arsene Winger, he was given an offer by Paris Saint-Germain to join the backroom staff of the club and he was offered an assistant coach offer by Manchester City.
Reasonably, Mikel Arteta accepted to join Manchester City where he would assist Pep Guardiola as an assistant coach. Arteta served under Pep Guardiola for three years before he was offered a contract by Arsenal to manage the team after Unai Emery’s contract was terminated.
Interestingly, Brazilian defender, David Luiz joined Arsenal in 2019 for a fee of about £8 million when Unai Emery was still the manager. At that time, David Luiz had challenges in making the starting eleven of the team, oftentimes, he was always dropped on the bench as a substitute. However, things changed for good since the arrival of Mikel Arteta as the coach of the team.
As if making a consistent starting eleven since the arrival of Mikel Arteta is not good enough for the 30-year-old Brazilian. He has also been able to fulfill one of his dreams for years as a professional player. According to him, he has envisaged for the time he would be coached by Pep Guardiola. Luiz explained that the signing of Arteta to become an Arsenal coach has made his dream come true. He stated that although it is not that it was a concrete reality, nevertheless, for him to be managed by someone who has learned a lot from Pep Guardiola for about three years is as good as being managed by Guardiola himself.
Quoting his words while speaking with ESPN Brazil, he said: “I am grateful because I made another dream come true. Not in a concrete way, but in a different way. I always had the dream of working with [Pep] Guardiola,”
“I couldn’t work with him, but I’m having the opportunity to work with a person who grew up and learned and was victorious with him, who has the same ideas. So, in a way, I’m making a dream come true.”
“The thing that impressed me the most was that the day he arrived, he brought the whole club together, not just the players,” he added.
“And I would like the club to walk together, with the same ideas, the same purpose, the same oxygen. Let everyone understand why we were there, who we were representing and the way we were supposed to do it.
“Since that first meeting, I saw, breathed and said: now I understand why I am here. Since then, I have been enchanted by the form and conduct he had.”
