Why Arteta and Southgate's Journeys 'Feel The Same'

Despite never interacting in a footballing sense, Mikel Arteta and Gareth Southgate would likely find common ground if they ever do cross paths.

They would bond over shared trauma: notably how both #ArtetaOut and #SouthgateOut have been trending far too many times to recall, or through the agony they have both felt in coming within an arm's length of a trophy, just to have it snatched away at the last minute.

The two managers have had careers that can have many a parallel drawn between them - in almost every way.

Project Management

Whether it's by completely disregarding Southgate's achievements by saying he never won a trophy or by failing to recognise Arteta's very tangible progress in North London, it is always easier to focus on the negatives when evaluating football managers.

Yet as two highly intellectual, football-wise figures, both managers would certainly take comparisons with each other in a complimentary way.

From The Ground Up

Both England and Arsenal can be seen to have undergone 'projects' in recent years.

Southgate inherited an England team that had been shattered by Iceland in Euro 2016, and, even though he was initially appointed as interim boss, immediately looked at the bigger picture. Despite the biannual demands of the press that the Three Lions must bring football home, Southgate set about preparing his team in the ways he could control.

He hired Pippa Grange as England's sports psychologist as a means of improving both player well-being and their capacity to deal with pressure - such as in penalty shootouts. Over time, he made England a hard team to beat, one that opponents could never count out, and brought a country back together through football.

England have scored 36 goals in Southgates 3 tournaments in charge. It took us 7 tournaments before this to score the same amount of goals ! The disrespect and short memory is bizarre.

— Ben S ⚽️ (@Ben_S1990) June 4, 2024

He conquered the once terrifying hurdle of a World Cup penalty shootout against Colombia in 2018, oversaw moments such as Kieran Trippier's semi-final free kick, Luke Shaw's opener and the Euro 2020 final and Ollie Watkins' late winner against Netherlands in 2024.

It's easy to throw Southgate under the bus and say that he was responsible for England never quite getting over the line, but by doing that, it's only fair that he receives flowers for taking a nation that could barely remember reaching a semi-final of a major competition, to reaching two European Championship finals in a row.

Then there is Arteta's Arsenal. A club that was little more than a joke in December 2019 when he took over - and while it took the Spaniard a little while to get his feet under the table, tangible progress started to be obvious in 2021.

Since then, he has guided the Gunners to (probably) three successive second place finishes and came tantalizingly close to winning the Premier League last season. Tonight, he will be in the dugout for the second leg of Arsenal's second Champions League semi-final in fifteen years.

🔴 𝗠𝗔𝗧𝗖𝗛𝘿𝘼𝙔 ⚪️

🆚 PSG
🕗 8pm (UK)
🏆 Champions League
🏟️ Parc des Princes pic.twitter.com/S26M4bqh2W

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) May 7, 2025

Similarly to Southgate, Arteta has instilled in Arsenal a culture of high standards (as he loves to remind the press), and evolved his team tactically to make his team impossible to count out.

Nurturing Natures

If the connection between Southgate and Arteta was to be embodied in one player, it could only be Bukayo Saka.

Southgate trusted the then 19-year-old to take a penalty for his nation in England's biggest game for over fifty years. Many players would have crumbled through the shame and abuse that followed when his penalty was met by the towering frame of Gianluigi Donnarumma, but Saka's incredible mental strength and the guidance of two of football's most forward-thinking minds have led to him becoming one of world football's most powerful wingers.

Arteta didn't shy away from the penalty miss - quite the opposite. He turned Saka into Arsenal's penalty taker, and with great success. He has scored ten of eleven penalties since missing in the final.

Southgate equally doubled-down on Saka from the spot - choosing him as one of England's takers in the Euro 2024 quarter-final against Switzerland. Having scored the equaliser in regular time, the Ealing-born youngster converted his penalty to take England to the semi-final.

Both Southgate and Arteta have an appreciation for the mental pressures of modern football, and their abilities to turn difficult experiences into learning opportunities is perhaps unrivalled by any other coaches.

Falling Short

For all their positive impacts, the one truth that still harms the pedigree of both managers is their shared lack of silverware. Southgate never won a trophy, and Arteta's only accomplishment remains the 2020 FA Cup that he won in his first season (discounting two Community Shields, which is not widely considered a major trophy).

But as discussed, both managers are incredibly smart, talented and almost no doubt deserve a more tangible reward for what they have done in their respective roles.

Their reasons for never quite getting over the line are incredibly subjective. While both managers can be criticised for conservative tactics: such as Arsenal's incredibly defensive setup against Manchester City in March 2024 or Southgate's allegedly conservative tactics in big matches, there were certainly other factors in play on each occasion.

For Arteta, his lack of squad depth has harmed his chances of winning the Premier League. In 2022/23 the Gunners lost William Saliba to injury at a vital time, and injuries to both Saka and Martin Odegaard have dearly hindered their challenge this season.

Arsenal's somewhat inconsistent performance levels can arguably be attributed to this, and when considered in conjunction with the fact that Arteta's squad has previously been largely inexperienced, this inconsistency becomes quite reasonable.

In the England camp, injuries have probably played less of a role. It's fair to consider Southgate's tactics as having been conservative - particularly in Euro 2024 - but football's low-scoring, high-variable nature means that factors beyond Southgate's control are equally to blame. Knockout football is brutal by nature, and as Jurgen Klopp has famously said "you cannot plan to win".

Southgate is also a firm believer in this idea: he simply planned to give his team a fighting chance. It is impossible to guarantee trophies.

In that light, both Southgate and Arteta deserve recognition not for what they didn’t win, but for how consistently they gave their teams the opportunity to compete at the highest level.