LONDON – Mikel Arteta has slammed reports that he was ready to quit Arsenal to become Barcelona manager as “fake news”.

Reports in Spain on Jan 28 had claimed he had told colleagues he was going to leave the Emirates Stadium to return to Barca at the end of this season.

Current Barca boss Xavi announced on Jan 27 he would step down in the summer after a string of disappointing results, leading to Arteta being installed as one of the favourites to replace him.

Having come through the fabled academy at Barca, Arteta has a long-standing connection to the Camp Nou. But the 41-year-old on Jan 29 insisted he is keen to stay put at Arsenal.

“I am in the right place. I am with the right people,” he said.

“I feel really good about it. And, as I said many times, I am invested in a beautiful journey with this football club, with these players, these staff, our people.

“There is still a lot to do here. We all share that ambition and you can feel it as well, that we want more, that we aren’t satisfied and that the club wants to take another push and another level in everything we are doing.

“We need everyone on board to achieve it and I am certainly on board.”

Dismissing the Barca reports as completely fabricated, Arteta admitted he had been upset by the story.

“That’s totally fake news. I don’t know where it is coming from and it has no source. I am really upset about it,” he said.

“I could not believe it. I have always been really straight and always said the complete opposite; how happy I am and how much I enjoy where I am now.”

German champions Bayern Munich, meanwhile, were also forced to deny on Jan 29 that their coach Thomas Tuchel had talked about the Barca job.

At a Bayern fan club event later on Jan 28, the former Chelsea manager said that working “abroad will appeal to me again” at some point in his career.

Tuchel then talked in general about the Spanish La Liga and, according to some reports, he also spoke about the possibility of working at Barca.

Bayern’s chief executive Jan-Christian Dreesen and sporting director Christoph Freund, though, issued an angry statement afterwards to insist that Tuchel “never spoke about Xavi Hernandez and his successor, as was falsely claimed afterwards”.

Bayern added: “We will no longer accept such non-factual statements directed against our coach.” AFP