Mikel Arteta has been in charge of Arsenal for a couple of months now and he has mostly done positive stuff at the club.
While the Gunners have dropped several easy points during their past couple of matches but their new manager has surely instilled new hope and intensity in the players – something which was clearly lacking when Unai Emery was in charge.
But apart from that, there’s one major thing that Mikel Arteta has achieved which no one’s really talking about right now.
When the Spaniard left Man City to take charge of Arsenal, players like Mustafi, Aubameyang and Granit Xhaka were all expected to leave the club during the January transfer window.
While Xhaka was on the verge of an exit, players like Auba and even Mesut Ozil had been linked with big names across Europe.
But speaking to the press, Arsenal keeper Bernd Leno has hinted that the arrival of the new manager might have put a stop to the rumoured exits – atleast temporarily.
“I think not too many players talked about this,” said the goalkeeper as reported by Standard.
“Of course there are many rumours and other people talk about this, but you never had the feeling that any player was thinking about another club or wanted to leave or was refusing to train, or something like that, or they didn’t have the mentality in the training.
“Everybody can see we have a new manager and a new mentality. We want to build something here at Arsenal.
“Maybe it takes a little bit of time, but of course we also want to have good results straight away now.
“You can see on the pitch all these rumours [don’t affect] these players – they are fighting, they are leading the team and this is the only way.”
While Mikel Arteta has been able to retain all of his players for the remainder of the season but the manager will surely look to rebuild his squad during the summer meaning there could be a massive cleanout inside the dressing room at the end of the current campaign.
