Mikel Arteta would leave Arsenal if Manchester United came calling to replace Erik ten Hag in the summer, according to Rio Ferdinand.
Arteta has been in charge of the Gunners since December 2019 and has his side in the Premier League title race for the second successive season. After scoring 25 goals in six straight wins, Arteta's side are just two points behind leaders Liverpool and one adrift of defending champions Manchester City.
The 41-year-old is not looking for another job just yet, with the Premier League title race ongoing and the second leg of Arsenal ’s Champions League last-16 tie against Porto on the horizon. But with Ten Hag under pressure at United following the arrival of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his INEOS team, Ferdinand has pondered a future move to Manchester for the Spaniard.
“Arteta would leave Arsenal to come to Man United, 100 per cent,” he said on FIVE. “No-one is saying it’s happening, but if Man United, in their wildest dreams, said ‘do you know what, Erik ten Hag, thank you’, or Erik ten Hag has been poached by Bayern Munich and he goes there, and Man United say ‘right, top of our list, Mikel Arteta’, Arteta is going in [to Arsenal] and saying ‘listen lads, it’s been emotional, but I’ve got to move and got to go’.”
Arteta is currently only under contract with Arsenal until the end of the 2024/25, but has insisted he is very happy in north London. Speaking in January after reports in Spain linked him with the Barcelona job when Xavi Hernandez steps down in the summer, he said: “That’s totally fake news. What you read yesterday... I don’t know where it is coming from and it is totally untrue. I am really upset about it.
“I could not believe it. I don’t know where it is coming from and it has no source. It has got nothing and I think we have to be very cautious when you talk about personal things to put it in the way it was put yesterday.
“I am in the right place. I am with the right people. I feel really good about it. And, as I said many times, I am invested in a beautiful journey with this football club, with these players, these staff, our people, and there is still a lot, a lot to do.
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“We all share that ambition and you can feel it as well, that we want more, that we aren't satisfied and that the club wants to take another push and another level in everything we are doing, this is where we are. We need everyone on board to achieve it and I am certainly on board.”
Asked about his contractual situation, he added: “I think I have got a strong relationship with the board, with [sporting director] Edu, with Tim [Lewis, executive vice-chairman], with the ownership and things come in a natural way. We have always done that way and it worked out really well. And when the time is right we will have those discussions and think about the best way to do it.”
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