Rob Holding left Arsenal in the summer, but he continues to back Mikel Arteta. The English defender spent seven years with Arsenal before moving to Crystal Palace. He was one of the few players that remained from the time Arsene Wenger was manager.
Rob Holding praises Mikel Arteta
Holding talked about a phone call with Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta after he left and went to Crystal Palace in the summer. The Arsenal manager always liked Holding for who he was off the field. Arteta valued him when he was at Arsenal and thanked him personally when he left.
Rob Holding was with Arsenal for a long time before he left. The defender finished his seven-year time at the Emirates and moved to Crystal Palace for £4 million on transfer deadline day.
In his last years at Arsenal, Holding didn’t play regularly, but Mikel Arteta always counted on him for his good influence in the locker room. Aaron Ramsdale even called him the ‘glue’ because he kept the team together. Arteta noticed this, so he called Holding personally after he left Arsenal to express gratitude for everything he did during Arteta’s time as the manager.
“I do think that (I excelled at) understanding stuff because even in meetings with Arteta, we would be going through team shape in the actual meeting on the video, and he would always say a sentence and then leave the answer at the end and you had to fill in the answer, someone had to shout out the answer. I just found myself doing it all the time, and he actually rang me when I left and just said like thank you for everything, like you were there from the start of his reign at Arsenal till the end,” Holding said on Harry’s Gym Chat.
🗣️Rob Holding on Mikel Arteta:
"He actually rang me when I left and just said like thank you for everything, like you were there from the start of his reign at Arsenal till the end.
That was nice because you very rarely get that." [Harry's Gym Chat via Tbrfootball] pic.twitter.com/Xwk9PHO6eW
— AfcVIP⁴⁹ (@VipArsenal) January 18, 2024
“That was nice because you very rarely get that. He’s quite an intense guy, so to have that sort of just relaxed conversation with him was nice and to just sort of give me that approval, I was like you know what, I’m glad you’ve said that because it did make me feel good,” he added.
Injuries derailed his career but Arsenal fans will always respect Rob Holding.
