Vitor Pereira reveals he had a long and good meeting with Arsenal before they appointed Mikel Arteta
Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Vitor Pereira has claimed he once had a job offer from Arsenal before Mikel Arteta was appointed.
The Gunners were in search of a new boss back in November 2019 after sacking Unai Emery, and they hired their former midfielder the following month.
Arteta has made Arsenal a force to be reckoned with again in England and Europe, but Pereira could have been in charge had the North London club not appointed their current boss.
“Do you know how many meetings I had here in England? The first one, West Bromwich, in the Premier League, maybe 15 years ago,” the Wolves boss told The Telegraph.
“The second? Everton. Third? Crystal Palace with the proposal, with the contract for two-and-a-half years. Then they changed the idea for another [manager], but I realised that is normal here.
“After that, Chelsea, then Everton again, then Arsenal. I had a very long, very good meeting with Arsenal before they signed [Mikel] Arteta.”
The Portuguese finally got his opportunity to manage a Premier League club, joining the Midlands club in December 2024, and he has since helped them secure safety after taking over when the team were in 19th place and with just nine points from 16 matches.
Pereira is doing well at the moment, but Arsenal have had no regrets over appointing Arteta, with the Spaniard winning them the 2019-20 FA Cup and the FA Community Shield in 2020 and 2023 since his arrival.
The Gunners finished second in the Premier League behind Manchester City both in 2022-23 and 2023-24, and are set to finish the current campaign as runners-up if they win three of their remaining four league games.
They are in the semi-finals of the Champions League and are looking to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the first-leg of the tie against Paris Saint-Germain, and reaching the final and winning the competition will be huge for Arteta.
