Former Arsenal star Theo Walcott recalls a training ground incident that left Arsene Wenger “scared” of Mikel Arteta… and claims the Spaniard was destined for the managerial position.

• Theo Walcott and Mikel Arteta played together for Arsenal under Arsene Wenger
• Arteta ended his active playing career in 2016 and has been coach of the Gunners since 2019
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Theo Walcott was not surprised that his former Arsenal teammate Mikel Arteta moved into management.

Arteta, who has been the Gunners’ manager since 2019, was captain of the club for the last two years of his playing career, from 2014 to 2016.

Walcott, who played alongside Arteta during this time, recently revealed in an interview on the podcast “Up Front with Simon Jordan” that the Spaniard behaved like a coach long before he was one himself.

Recalling a story from when legendary manager Arsene Wenger was still at the helm, Walcott told Jordan how Arteta once delayed a training session by locking his teammates in the dressing room.

Walcott claimed Arteta was “such a strong personality that even Arsene was afraid of him”.

“The turning point in my view of Mikel Arteta was an experience I had with him as a player at Arsenal,” said Walcott. “That was at a time when we were not in the top four.”

“We had training in 30 minutes and he locked all the players in the dressing room as if he was the manager.”

“He took control of the whole room and told us how it was. At that moment it was like he was the manager and that was the turning point for me.

“At the time, I thought he could become a coach. Arsene Wenger was waiting for us to come out for training, but we didn’t come out because Mikel had stopped training.

“He was such a strong personality that even Arsene was afraid of him.”

After retiring from playing in 2016, Arteta joined the coaching staff of Manchester City and was assistant to Pep Guardiola until December 2019, when he got the top job at Arsenal.

After finishing eighth in his first two seasons and fifth in his third, Arteta’s Arsenal have finished second behind Man City in each of their last two seasons.

Last season they were just two points behind Pep Guardiola’s team and narrowly missed out on their first title in two decades.

However, Arteta already has numerous titles to his name as Arsenal manager: he has won an FA Cup and two FA Community Shield victories.