Arsenal chief executive Richard Garlick has said Mikel Arteta's new contract gives the club a clear advantage over their Premier League rivals.
It was confirmed on Wednesday that Arteta had signed a new four-year deal, which includes a significant pay rise, making him one of the best-paid managers in the league.
A decade of progress
Arteta took over the club in 2019 when it was at a low ebb, but has steadily built it into one of world football's most formidable outfits. The project, which has involved an overhaul of the backroom staff, players, and club facilities, culminated last season in winning the Premier League title. Arteta has made little secret of his desire to now turn Arsenal into the world's best team.
His higher-ups concur, with Garlick saying this week that the club are always looking forward.
"We can't stand still," he said while speaking at Leaders Week, a convention for global sports executives held this week at Stamford Bridge. "We can't sit there and pat ourselves on the back and say, 'job done'. This is the beginning and not the end of our journey. This is where we want to go on and show the confidence that that [Premier League] win is going to bring to us."
A competitive advantage
"We want to dominate football for the next number of years and we are in a really strong position to do that," Garlick added. "It gives us a competitive advantage over the other teams. We've got a manager who has been allowed to build and develop over time. It's not the end of it, it's an exciting new beginning for us."
After Pep Guardiola left Manchester City last season, Arteta is now the longest-serving manager in the Premier League, by some distance. Unai Emery sits second, with his spell of just under four years at Aston Villa paling in comparison to his countryman's near seven in north London.
Garlick continued, explaining why Arteta's longevity gives Arsenal a leg up on their rivals: "I look at the other teams in the Premier League and Mikel is now the only current manager that has won the Premier League. You look at the other traditional top-six teams and they have all gone through managerial changes in the past 12 months, whereas we now have a manager who has been with us for a significant period of time."
"He has been allowed to build and develop a team and that is the excitement now. We see that platform that we have got and to be built on. And we can say this isn't the end of it, but that it is actually a really exciting beginning for us."
