8 months ago
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MIKEL ARTETA is reportedly lining up a controversial former Manchester United star to add to his backroom team.
That’s according to reports in Argentina that are linking Gabriel Heinze with a move to Arsenal’s coaching team.
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AFPHeinze has some first-team coaching experience, having briefly been head coach of Atlanta United in the MLS.
He most recently managed Argentine giants Newell’s Old Boys for one year between January 2023 and December 2023 but left after a mid-table finish.
ESPN Argentina report that Heinze is a character that Arteta likes, particularly with one of his current coaches, Carlos Cuesta, being linked with a managerial move to Norwich.
Fellow coach Albert Stuivenberg has also been linked with a managerial move to Ajax.
Journalist Leandro Alves says Heinze has been in London and has held talks with Arsenal.
He was recently pictured watching a Real Madrid Under-19 game with Arteta as Los Blancos took on Atletico Madrid.
Heinze played for Manchester United between 2004 and 2007, playing 83 times for the club.
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Had he made the move directly from Manchester United to Liverpool he would have been the first to do so since 1964.
Heinze said at the time: “My fight is for the freedom to negotiate with any club.
“United never wanted me to leave for one of the big clubs, but this anti-Liverpool clause is incredible.”
He has since admitted that he regrets trying to force through the transfer.
He recently said: “I hope it doesn’t tarnish the way they [the fans] see me and they will remember the three years I had in the team.”
Heinze played with Arteta when they both played for PSG in the 2001-02 season and the pair appear to have maintained a good relationship.
Arteta was asked about the prospect of some of his coaching staff leaving to take managerial jobs back in February.
He said: “If that’s their will? You cannot [stop them]. I wouldn’t, no.
“It’s very important, and with the staff as well. I think everybody needs to feel that there is a path, there is a development plan for everyone.
“People don’t want to do the same thing for three, four, five years you know, and there is a way to incentivise people, to inspire other people, and then to explore.
“Because you don’t really know the limit of a person unless you expose him to certain things. I think curiosity is a really important quality that we have within our young staff, and that thrives.
“We all need opportunities. I got an opportunity when I didn’t have any experience in coaching, first of all at Man City and then here, and I’m very grateful for that.”
How Arteta made Arsenal horrible again, with Tony Pulis tactic and gentle star turned into Diego Costa-style hate figure
By Dave Kidd
BOTTLERS, chokers, shandy-drinking southern softies.
These were the charges levelled at Arsenal when they blew the title last season.
And even if the actual reason they failed was because William Saliba got injured and Rob Holding had to start, Mikel Arteta clearly took those accusations to heart.
If his team are not crowned champions next month, the Gunners boss has categorically ensured that they won’t go down being accused of nicey-niceyness.
Because, as well as being thrillingly entertaining and free-scoring when they want to be, this season’s Arsenal are also thoroughly horrible.
They are not here to make friends. They are not interested in being anybody’s second-favourite team.
And so, six days after stink-bombing the Etihad with a display of Mourinho-esque anti-football for a 0-0 draw, Arsenal turned up at the home of former bogey-team Brighton and s***housed their way to a thoroughly impressive 3-0 win.
How wonderful for the travelling Gooners to witness Ben White — against his former club — going down as if he’d taken a bullet to his neck when Brighton’s Pervis Estupinan brushed against him.
White is renowned as a gentle and decent bloke, intelligent enough to challenge the zeitgeist and claim there might be things in life other than football.
And yet suddenly he’s become some Diego Costa-style anti-hero hate figure, his wife goading the masses by posting social-media pictures of them playing a childish card game on a sun lounger after he’d refused an international call-up.
Because Arsenal are horrible again. Even Ben White is a villain.
And that might just be Arteta’s greatest triumph.
Click here to read Dave Kidd’s column in full.
To read more from Dave Kidd, click here.
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