Arsene Wenger believes that Mikel Arteta should surround himself with the right people given his lack of managerial experience if he is appointed by Arsenal.
Arteta has held talks with the north London club this week and is expected to be installed as Unai Emery's successor ahead of this weekend's clash with Everton.
The Spaniard spent five years working under Wenger at the Emirates Stadium, before becoming Pep Guardiola's assistant at Manchester City in 2016.
Yet despite helping City win two Premier League titles, Arteta has no front-line managerial experience.
And Wenger believes his former charge will therefore need to pick his coaching staff very carefully.
"I am an Arsenal supporter. And at the moment I support the manager in charge and the manager in charge is [Freddie] Ljungberg. When Arteta will be in charge I will support Arteta," the Frenchman told Sky Sports.
"He [Arteta] is intelligent, he has passion, he has knowledge, but Ljungberg [does] as well.
"I believe that Arteta has certainly a great future, he has certainly learned a lot in his first position as an assistant coach and after that as well he will have to deal with the fact that he has no experience at that level and he will have to get surrounded well."
Wenger spent 22 years in charge of Arsenal before bowing out at the end of the 2017/18 campaign.
Emery was chosen as his replacement and secured a fifth-place finish in the Premier League last term, before a poor start to this season brought about his dismissal.
But Wenger does not believe his lengthy tenure meant it was inevitable that Arsenal would struggle after his departure.
"I don't think it's a necessity to have that," he added. "When I left the club was in a very strong financial position and they bought many players in-between - they have not all worked out.
"I believe that it's not a question of time. The change can be very efficient very quickly, it's just about the right decision-making and that's all that it's about in football, it's about good players.
"We speak about the success of Liverpool, of course they have a great manager, but you have to say as well that in the last three-four years, they bought the right players."
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