In the summer of 2016, after he had called time on his playing career and agreed to join Manchester City as a coach, Mikel Arteta packed his bags at Arsenal and said farewell to the club that had been his home for five years. It was a moment of transition and upheaval in the Spaniard’s life but, amid all the emotions, he made sure to look out for Per Mertesacker, his friend and teammate.
Mertesacker had joined Arsenal on the same day as Arteta, the transfer deadline day of August 2011, and for half a decade they had been two of the most senior members of the first team. They knew how each other thought and felt, and Arteta knew how important Mertesacker could be to the long-term success of the organization.
And so, before Arteta left for City, he passed a message to Ivan Gazidis, then Arsenal’s chief executive. “When he left us, he left Ivan a note saying ‘you can’t lose Per,'” says Mertesacker. “He told Ivan, ‘you can’t lose this guy. Just put him somewhere.’”
Within a few weeks, Mertesacker had been made the new club captain, replacing Arteta. And within two years, he was appointed Arsenal’s new academy manager. Gazidis and Arsene Wenger did not just put him “somewhere”, as Arteta had asked. They had put the German in charge of the club’s footballing future.
Five years have passed since then and Arteta and Mertesacker, who used to share a car to train as players, are now perhaps the two most influential people at the club. At the ages of 41 and 38 respectively, they are determining Arsenal’s direction of travel in the short, medium and long term.
Mertesacker first recommended Arteta for the head coach’s role in 2018, when Unai Emery was appointed instead. “I put in a good word for him,” says Mertesacker. “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.
“A year and a half later, he then came and it felt like the right time. From there it has been a feeling of trust, that we both do the best for the club. It is pretty much aligned. It is a brilliant feeling that we have around this place.”
While Arteta’s first team are pushing for the Premier League title, trophies are also on the agenda for Mertesacker’s academy: Arsenal’s under-18s, coached by Jack Wilshere, face West Ham United in the final of the FA Youth Cup on Tuesday night.
It was Mertesacker who appointed Wilshere last summer, after an interview process which involved Arteta and Edu, the club’s sporting director. “I was praying that Jack would turn up for the interview and be himself,” says Mertesacker. “It was brilliant to see him presenting himself, what he stands for, what coach he wants to be, how he wants to be.”
Mertesacker has been out on the training pitches in recent days, helping Wilshere prepare his under-18s for their big night, but his role is usually more office-based. Mertesacker had a taste of coaching in 2019, when he was made a first-team assistant during Freddie Ljungberg’s short spell as interim manager, and that was more than enough for him.
“That was the shock experience of my life, basically,” says Mertesacker. “It was tough, and it was overwhelming for me. It was almost coming back to my 15-year playing career — every week something is on the line. I felt that was not something I wanted to pursue.”
Not that Mertesacker’s day job as academy manager is much easier. The former defender has to constantly think of the bigger picture — “it’s a 10-year cycle to mold our youngsters” — but also deal with short-term issues, including informing young players and their families that they are being released.
“It doesn’t get any easier,” he says. “There is always a different person, a different face. I go into these meetings and I am nervous, similar to playing 300 games and going into an FA Cup final feeling 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.”
Certain parts of Mertesacker’s job have been more straightforward since Arteta instilled a new culture in north London. The exiles, and subsequent departures, of star players like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mesut Ozil and Matteo Guendouzi had an impact not just on the first-team, but on the entire club.
“I can ask the academy players the question: what will Mikel say about this behavior in the first team?” says Mertesacker. “I can put that on them. It makes it so much easier for me now. ‘Do you think this behavior will make it easier to go to the first team? Do you think Mikel will accept this behavior?’ This is pretty impactful.
“Mikel changed the direction of the club. It sends a message to the rest of the organization, to myself, that we have to be on the spot in developing young individuals who can cope with challenges, with pressure. I like that. It is setting standards at the highest level.”
In their five years as teammates under Wenger, Arteta and Mertesacker enjoyed results that were “OK, but not outstanding,” the German says. “A few Champions League [qualifications]a few FA Cups.”
Now, in different roles and with different responsibilities, there is a shared determination to achieve more and win more than they ever did as players.
“We want to build something now that is more successful for the future of the club,” says Mertesacker. “That is what excites me. We couldn’t get it done, in terms of league titles, when we were here [as players]. Hopefully we can be more successful in terms of major trophies, and hopefully build up the next generation of players and people who can make the difference on the pitch.”