Arsenal may have finally settled for former captain and Manchester City Assistant Coach,Mikel
Arteta as they negotiated a four year deal up to the wee hours of Monday.Arsenal managing director Vinai Venkatesham was pictured leaving the Manchester mansion of Mikel Arteta in the early hours of Monday morning as speculation over the Gunners’ new manager intensifie
- Arsenal CEO,Vinai Venkatesham leaving Mikel Arteta’s Manchester apartment this morning after negotiations
In a further sign that Arteta may be set for the top job at the Emirates Stadium, the club’s contract negotiator Huss Fahmy was also seen leaving the property at 1.20am.
Arteta, a former Arsenal player, is currently serving as No 2 to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.
Sportsmail understands that Arteta is interested in the job and, crucially, is prepared to take it on mid-season.
He has been linked with the manager’s job at the north London club since the dismissal of Unai Emery last month.
The visit of Venkatesham and Fahmy to Manchester came just hours after City defeated Arsenal 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium in the Premier League.
Pictures show the two members of Arsenal’s hierarchy leaving Arteta’s mansion and stepping inside a waiting Mercedes-Benz people carrier with blacked-out windows.
It is understood they emerged at around 1.20am following a two-and-a-half-hour meeting.
Other managers linked with the Arsenal job in recent weeks include another former player in Patrick Vieira, the ex-Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri and Carlo Ancelotti, recently dismissed by Napoli.
The pictures sent Arteta’s odds to become the next Arsenal manager tumbling to the strong 1/5 favourite.
Ancelotti is the next most likely according to the bookmakers on 7/1 followed by Ljungberg at 12/1 and Allegri at 16/1.
Bookmaker Paddy Power suspended betting on Arteta to become the next Gunners boss.
Venkatesham is intimately involved in the recruitment process to find Arsenal’s new manager, all the more imperative after they were outclassed by City on Sunday.
The result left the Gunners sitting ninth in the Premier League table, seven points off the top four but also seven points from the relegation zone.
Spanish former midfielder Arteta played 149 times for Arsenal between 2011 and 2016 before making the transition into coaching.
He has served as Guardiola’s assistant coach since he arrived at City in 2016.
Speaking after City’s win on Sunday, Guardiola said: ‘He’s an important, important part (of Manchester City’s set-up).
‘If it happens, it will happen. When he wants to talk we are open to talk but it’s private, I don’t want to make things uncomfortable.’
Emery was sacked in the wake of a 2-1 Europa League loss to Eintracht Frankfurt on November 28 but results haven’t improved under interim boss Ljungberg.
They drew 2-2 with Norwich City in his first match in charge before losing 2-1 at home to Brighton and Hove Albion.
A 3-1 win at West Ham last Monday alleviated some of the pressure before they rounded off their Europa League group with a 2-2 draw against Standard Liege in Belgium.
But Sunday’s embarrassingly easy loss to City has only hammered home the imperative of appointing a new permanent manager right away.
The first task for whoever takes over will be to oversee an upturn in Arsenal’s league form, with visits to Everton and Bournemouth, then crunch home games against Chelsea and Manchester United, lying in wait over Christmas and New Year.
Venkatesham has occupied a number of roles behind the scenes at Arsenal since arriving as head of global partnerships in March 2010.
In June 2013, he became the director of global partnerships and business strategy and then sale and marketing director in November of the same year.
He served as chief commercial officer until the departure of chief executive Ivan Gazidis, when he was made managing director.