‘I was Mikel Arteta’s assistant at Arsenal – this is why I really left after three years’

Former assistant Steve Round has hit out at the “load of rubbish” rumours surrounding his exit from the club last year.

Round joined the Gunners in December 2019 when was hired and had been a key part of his staff, before leaving in July of last year.

Writing to staff at the time, sporting director Edu claimed that Round was leaving “by mutual agreement,” though unsubstantiated reports claimed that a disagreement over signing goalkeeper David Raya caused the separation.

Round has now rejected those claims, insisting that it was time for the 54-year-old to move on and allow Arteta to refresh his team with a few younger faces.

“I read a piece about that (Raya disagreement) and that’s completely untrue, it’s a load of rubbish,” he told the podcast. “There were no arguments or differences of opinion or anything like that. When I first went in with Mikel, I said to him: ‘When the time is right, I think I’ll need to move on when it suits us both’.

“We had a discussion in that summer (2023) and we said ‘I think it’s time that I went and we were both in agreement with each other’. I think I needed to step away from it and have a break. I’ve been on the front line for nearly 30 years and it was tough.

“And I think he needed to refresh his staff as well and promote a couple of younger coaches. I’d moved more into the technical director sphere, which is what I’m looking at right now. So I just felt it was the right time.”

Round also worked alongside at and , at and at , admitting that among his many successful eras he was “proud” of his time in north London.

“Mikel’s a world-class coach,” Round added. “His ability to get his message across tactically and the way to teach that team to play in a cohesive unit is unbelievable.

“I was proud of what we did there, of what we achieved, to go in and help turn a club around that was starting to fail. I helped to rebuild and embrace the culture that was and put it back on track.”

He has also been impressed with start at United, as the Portuguese .

“I like the new coach at ,” Round admitted. “I like what I’ve seen. I was at the Bodo/Glimt game the other night, and I liked the way he set up his team and the structure.

“What was really interesting was in the first half, he had his shape in a 3-4-3 and played in the pocket. And although he scored a goal and he looked a threat, it didn’t look perfectly natural to him, so at half time, he changed it and he put him wide.

“So he’d recognised it, he’d seen it, and Garnacho then played really well. He’s going to evolve this system, and I think it’s going to take time.”