Everton’s board decided against hiring Mikel Arteta just before he became the manager of Arsenal in 2019, according to the Toffees’ former director of football Marcel Brands.
Arteta was appointed as the Gunners’ permanent successor to Unai Emery midway through the 2019/20 season and has become a roaring success in the Emirates Stadium dugout.
However, he could have taken on a different job upon leaving his post as Pep Guardiola’s assistant at Manchester City.
In an interview on the Dutch podcast De Beslissers van FC Afkicken, Brands – now the CEO of PSV Eindhoven – revealed how he wanted to bring in Arteta as their replacement for Marco Silva but was overruled.
“He is also a former player, of course,” Brands said of Arteta, who spent six years at Everton as a player. “I spent the entire evening at his house and I saw him as the ideal man for us. I immediately saw a top coach. Then he was still an assistant to Pep Guardiola and he was busy with other things. But you could see that he was becoming a top coach.
“I only heard positive things, also within the Everton club. Then I was at his house to sound him out and then I became so enthusiastic. So well prepared and that passion came out everywhere. His mouth, his nose and his ears.
“He would not have given us 15 points in the first five games. But the owner did not dare to do it with a young coach. Then I asked if he wanted to listen to that presentation, but he didn’t want to. I thought that was a shame. Then Arteta chose Arsenal after that. I thought this is the coach, but for the long term.”
Everton instead hired Carlo Ancelotti, who spent one-and-a-half seasons with the club before rejoining Real Madrid in 2021.
