Arsenal have moulded the club's off-field structure around Mikel Arteta. Now it is time to do the same with the playing staff.
It's been 95 days since the Gunners effectively promoted a 38-year-old with no previous experience of leading a club from "head coach" to "manager." While that decision slipped under the radar somewhat, feeling like semantics to those with only a passing interest, it in fact represented a hugely significant moment in Arsenal's evolution.
Former chief executive Ivan Gazidis had spent roughly two years quietly stripping back Arsene Wenger's managerial autonomy, appointing nine new department heads and trebling the number of football operations staff to create a framework designed to steer the club forward along a consistent plan, within which a head coach would operate rather than define.