Newport boss Flynn in WhatsApp group with Henry, Arteta and Ljungberg after training for coaching badges… and compared to Pep Guardiola
MIKEL ARTETA believes Michael Flynn is destined to become one of football’s top managers.
And being No 2 to Pep Guardiola he is well qualified to judge.
The Spaniard completed his pro licence alongside the Newport boss — Thierry Henry was in the same class — and the pair are now firm friends.
They went head to head early this year when Manchester City visited Rodney Parade in the FA Cup fifth round.
Guardiola’s superstars won 4-1 but the way Newport played that day confirmed to Arteta that having studied alongside him and played against him Flynn will one day be a top-flight boss.
The Welshman, 38, can take another giant step towards his own stated aim of bossing a Prem club at Wembley today.
Yet no matter the result of the League Two play-off final against Tranmere, Arteta is convinced Flynn is something special.
He said: “What Michael shows above everything is that he is a true leader. All the great managers have that quality and it is what makes the different to the rest.
“We see it, of course, in somebody like Pep, but it is also there in Michael.
“It does not matter at what level you coach and manager. What matters is that you inspire your players to improve.
What Michael shows above everything is that he is a true leader.
Mikel Arteta on Michael Flynn
“You show them understanding and humanity and it is these qualities, just as much as the ability to coach, that tells me Michael will one day be manager at a big club.”
Arteta’s huge compliment is echoed by Henry.
The French legend, who is in an unlikely WhatsApp group with Arteta, Flynn and Freddie Ljungberg, is expected to be at Wembley for the big game.
Two years ago Flynn completed The Exiles’ great escape as his side beat Notts County 2-1 on the last day of the season having been 11 points from safety with 12 games to go when he took over.
Henry said: “Michael Flynn is the big man.
“The situation they were in and yet he made it happen.
“I don’t care what division you are in, that was a remarkable, remarkable achievement.”
Flynn’s rise and rise may well continue even if Micky Mellon’s Rovers win at Wembley.
Managerless Swansea have him on their radar as a replacement for new Brighton boss Graham Potter and Flynn said: “I have made no secret of my ambitions.
TAKING THE MIC
"I want to manage at as high a level as possible and I have had so much encouragement from so many people.”
The friends made since he started on his remarkable journey as Newport boss read like a list of the glitterati of the game.
Guardiola has kept in touch after they met last February, he has Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino’s number after their clubs also clashed in the FA Cup.
A few weeks ago another pal in Pep Lijnders organised for him to spend a day at Liverpool’s Melwood training ground and have a 30-minute chat with his boss Jurgen Klopp.
Yet Newport-born Flynn, who played in the 2013 play-off win over Wrexham that took the club back into the Football League added: “This is not about me.
“This is about the town, the community, the feel-good factor in the whole area, how getting into League One would benefit the local economy.
“I cried the day we got back into the Football League. When we stayed up two years ago I was in a state of shock.
“How I will feel if we beat Tranmere? I just don’t know, but what I am certain of is the pride you can see around Newport these days.
MOST READ IN FOOTBALL
“Had we not stayed up in 2017 the club might well have gone to the wall — there was a serious chance of us going under. The club was re-born in 1989 after that happened once before but I am not sure we would have stayed alive again.
“Now we have money in the bank, we can look to the future, maybe even a future in League One.
“That is what is important. This is not about me.”
