Manchester City assistant coach Mikel Arteta has been linked with the Arsenal manager's job. There are plenty of Arsenal fans that see the appointment as a risk given the 36-year-old has never managed before. Alex McLeish-the man who brought Arteta to British football 16 years ago- has insisted that Mikel Arteta could be " the next Guardiola" at Arsenal. “It’s a hell of a leap isn’t it? But we’ve seen it happen before with some young coaches. There was a guy called Guardiola once, I don’t know what happened to him," McLeish said Football.London. “He was plunged into Barcelona and he never looked back. So who knows? Maybe it won’t work, but maybe he will be the next Guardiola. I would be lying if I said I was a genius and saw some great coaching traits in Mikel when I signed him because he was still a kid back then. “But coming to Scotland at that age was a real challenge for him, one that many players would have been scared to take. He took it on though which says a lot about his mentality and even after he had moved to Sociedad, I knew he had great ambition to still make it to the Premier League.” “I’ve never wavered in watching his progress in going from Sociedad to Everton to Arsenal and becoming a legend in British football. If he does get the job now, I wish him all the success. Good luck to him.”

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