Arsenal academy director Per Mertesacker believes one of the key traits he and first-team manager Mikel Arteta share is their desire to bring people with them on a journey. In 2016, however, when Arteta was retiring as a player at the club and heading off to work for Manchester City as a coach, he was determined his German team-mate should not follow him through the exit door.
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“(Arteta) left Ivan Gazidis (Arsenal’s chief executive until 2018) a note saying, ‘You can’t lose this guy’,” says former centre-back Mertesacker, who made over 200 appearances for the club from 2011-18. “In terms of, ‘You are losing me now (because) you are asking me too late’ — because he had promised to go to City. He told Ivan, ‘You can’t lose this guy. Just put him somewhere’. That was kind of the start and we kept tabs.
“And then (when it was) between him and Unai Emery (to replace Arsene Wenger in the summer of 2018) I put a good word in for him, without knowing how good he was as a coach. I knew how good he was as a human being and how much I trusted him. He called me when he didn’t get the job to say, ‘Thank you, I know you put my name forward’.
“A year and a half after when he then came, and (now sporting director) Edu came, it felt like the right time. From there it has been a feeling of trust, that we both do the best for the club and it is pretty much aligned. It is a brilliant feeling that we have around this place, that we are creating. It is based on the past we had together and it is really powerful.”
Arteta and Mertesacker arrived at Arsenal on the same day in late August 2011 — around 72 hours after that 8-2 humiliation by Manchester United at Old Trafford — and found a club in desperate need of leaders.
Nearly 12 years on, they are two of the pillars in the resurgence of the north Londoners, with Arteta overseeing a push for their first Premier League title in 19 years, the women’s side one win away from a Champions League final and the Jack Wilshere-managed Under-18s playing in the FA Youth Cup final against West Ham tomorrow (Tuesday).
The synergy between these teams and the fans is strong and Mertesacker believes the culture Arteta has created is rubbing off on the academy players who spend training sessions with his first team. And as for Wilshere, he believes the former Arsenal and England midfielder has a bright future too.
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“During his interview (for the under-18s job), I was sitting there, Mikel was sitting there, Edu was sitting there. He needs to present to us all and that informs our next move,” Mertesacker says. “I was praying that Jack would turn up for the interview and be himself. That was a moment when the truth comes.
“It was brilliant to see him presenting himself, what he stands for, what he wants to be like, what coach he wants to be, how he wants to play. That needs to be somewhat aligned with what Mikel wants to see. I was just pretty impressed how Jack and Mehmet Ali (the under-21s head coach) have presented themselves in front of senior people that could have said, ‘Not good enough, we want to have people from the outside coming in’. That could have easily happened.
“So I’m really pleased with his (Wilshere’s) first year. His ambition naturally is one day to go somewhere and coach a first team, but I’m not letting him at the moment. I think it’s important to be ambitious, but I think he respects the process so much more now.”
In his first season in management Wilshere, who made 197 appearances for Arsenal before retiring last summer aged 30 due to persistent injuries, could bring the FA Youth Cup back to the Emirates for the first time since 2008-09.
That was the season he made his Arsenal first-team debut, but his career has come full circle now. He was appointed by Mertesacker in July after spending half a season working with Arteta’s team and preparing himself for an academy coaching role.
“Head coach is a big job. It’s not just about working on the grass and being a role model and an inspiration. It’s about how you deal with staff, with all the emails, with how you delegate,” says Mertesacker.
“He’s made a huge impact. Struggling, learning moments in his first year, was amazing. But to go on an FA Youth Cup run like he did — who could have done that? I think he has done amazing in his transition.
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“We will have tough times together. But in terms of his first year in a head coaching position and the staff that have worked around him relentlessly for him and with him, I think he has created a good energy.”
Mertesacker chose not to become a coach who spends his days on the grass after hanging up his boots but rather take up the mantle of overseeing the bigger picture.
The 2014 World Cup-winning, 104-cap Germany international retired at age 33 after the 2017-18 season but initially was unsure if he had the thirst, which Wilshere has since displayed, to go straight back into a changing-room environment. The initial experience was “a bit overwhelming”, but he learnt to adjust.
“You have to quickly move into adapting, learning quickly to lead 80, 100 members of staff that we have in the academy,” he says. “It doesn’t get any easier. There is always a different person, a different face. There are emotions involved, you know? I go into these meetings and I am nervous.
“Similar to playing 300 games but going into an FA Cup final and being nervous. Whenever I go into a tough conversation with a staff member, or the decision is to release someone because we believe it is better for the individual, I will still be nervous and stutter when I talk. It is important for everyone to see that we are authentic and we mean it.”
Did he always see there was a natural coach within Wilshere from his years playing alongside him?
“I was probably thinking, ‘He will not make that transition’, but he proved me wrong in that sense,” Mertesacker says. “I had a perception about him: playing and being super-talented but probably not fulfilling his potential because of all the injuries he has had.
“But then from him switching it to, ‘I’m committed, I’m working hard. I’m learning, I’m ready to train with the first team and coach the academy teams in the evening’. That is where then I’ve thought, ‘If he can do that for half a year…’, and he’s done that pretty consistently.
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“I think he has shown me enough commitment there and consistency in order to transition well. Because it’s not easy, because as a first-team player, you turn up at nine, 10am and finish at two. That’s your day done. This is not possible (as a coach). If you want to do a proper job, this is a different pressure situation that they have to live up to.”
Arsenal’s youth base at Hale End has produced Bukayo Saka, Reiss Nelson and Emile Smith Rowe in recent years and the success of Wilshere’s under-18s side is building expectation that the pipeline will continue to pump out players for the first team.
“When I started, I thought I’d see (the products of my work) after two years, but I just got rid of that notion because you have to look at a 10-year cycle in the academy,” says Mertesacker. “The time between when you induct an under-nine and he leaves the academy, that’s a 10-year cycle. To have a strategy with a real impact and get people aligned. We’re now four, four and a half years in. I’m looking at the next three years thinking, ‘This is when the real work starts’.
“I don’t feel the pressure to take off the club in terms of transfers. I think the club is pretty clear that this is right, to invest in the academy, the youngsters. If you look at the history, a lot of these youngsters that started at nine have a good chance to get a Premier League debut. So, I think there is a clear message to us that we need to create good people and good players that can make that step to the first team or create value for the first team.
“In the last five, six years, if you look at £20million-plus sales, you have to look at Alex Iwobi, Joe Willock, Emiliano Martinez. These are the players that probably funded the investment we made. And we go back to a squad that now probably is ready and has good enough players that some get sold to fund new investments. This is just brilliant to see — that we have got a squad now that has got the capabilities.
“In terms of Arsenal and their DNA, we have always been at the forefront of giving young players a chance. That’s the responsibility I feel, when Arsene Wenger told me, ‘This is your job. You have to prepare yourself for it but we believe you’re the right person’. That meant a lot to me. So to take that on means to follow the footsteps and the past but prepare for the future. I can feel that kind of spirit at the moment.”
Whatever happens in the final weeks of the title race, Arsenal will compete in the Champions League again next season for the first time since 2016-17, and with that comes a higher bar at first-team level for young talents looking to break in.
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“I agree it’s a bigger challenge,” Mertesacker says. “Do we think we’re going to create more opportunities for them? Absolutely yes. It’s on everyone’s radar that we have to keep producing youngsters who are homegrown within our first team. That will always be the case and if they’re good enough, no one will be rejected, I can reassure you.
“Maybe the pathway gets a bit tougher, but we’re here to support and pick them up in adverse moments.”
(Top photo: David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)