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Guillem Balague: How Arteta has led Arsenal to brink of Champions League after six-year absence

Guillem Balague: How Arteta has led Arsenal to brink of Champions League after six-year absence
One of the things Mikel Arteta has done while in charge of Arsenal is plant an olive tree in the grounds outside his office.

He bought it not just as a reflection of his ideal football culture but also as a metaphor for Arsenal Football Club. While the fruit and leaves are the showpiece of the tree - the top players if you like - they are no more vital to its flourishing than the branches that hold them and the roots that grow beneath it.

For Arteta, those roots are the people who help the first team flourish and embody the core values that will make the club bigger and richer - such as respect, humility, a willingness to suffer and a no-blame culture.

Without these roots, the top of the tree would wither and die.

In April, after a run of three defeats against Crystal Palace, Brighton and Southampton, Arteta held a team meeting around that olive tree, where he talked them through this philosophy.

It might well be a coincidence but Arsenal have won four straight games since that meeting and are a win against Tottenham on Thursday away from qualifying for the Champions League for the first time since 2015-16.

The thinking that shapes Arteta's vision
The injuries Arteta, now 40, suffered at the end of his playing career made him think long and hard about his profession. He would spend up to 12 hours a day attached to scanners, speaking to doctors, being treated by physios and so on.

He tried everything he could to recover - a battle he was destined to lose - and gradually he had to accept his playing time was at an end. He has never forgotten that something he loved so dearly was taken away from him, a feeling that still drives him.

His playing CV boasted 14 years in the top flight of English and Scottish football, having grown up in the Barcelona youth system and also played at Paris St-Germain, where he crossed paths with Mauricio Pochettino, then a player at the team he now manages.

His career has also been touched by managers like David Moyes at Everton and Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, and he later drew on that experience to build a working relationship with Pep Guardiola, spending plenty of their time together on the Manchester City coaching staff asking questions in his quest to improve.

The experience he gained working with Guardiola was priceless, not least because it helped him refine his thinking process and establish his own philosophy.

He has always been a student of the game and, after looking deeply into the Premier League, now understands every aspect of it, from the interaction needed with the media, referees and fans, to knowing all about other teams.

In the last year of his coaching apprenticeship at City, he knew he was ready to take on a big job.

He was interviewed by Arsenal before they appointed Unai Emery in 2018, while other clubs such as Lyon and Newcastle were also interested in signing him.

Style-wise he is similar to his mentor Guardiola, although more along the lines of Premier League Pep - circa 2020 - rather than the Barcelona or Bayern Munich Pep of 2008 or 2012.

But in terms of his leadership, he is totally different to his great friend and former colleague. We will get to that.

Having been an assistant, one of his primary aims on joining Arsenal was to make sure he had the right coaching staff around him.

Arriving with him was assistant manager Steve Round, who brought with him a wealth of experience from working at clubs including Everton, Manchester United, Derby and Aston Villa. There was also Albert Stuivenberg, the former coach at Belgium club Genk and former assistant manager of Manchester United and Wales.

He chose them because he trusted them to ask the right questions, to have similar expectations, the same standards and integrity, and the necessary understanding of leadership, tactics and gameplans that could help Arsenal to win at this level.

They also had to ask themselves whether they had a synergy with Arteta that would help him succeed at the start of his coaching journey. The answer was positive and they all came to north London to win.

But first came the necessary step of changing the culture of a club that has not qualified for the Champions League since Wenger was in charge.

What is Arteta like to work with?
Working with Arteta on a daily basis is never going to be easy because he expects from those around him the kind of energy, passion and drive he expects from himself.

Most days he arrives at the training ground at around 8am and he ensures everyone is on their toes from the very start. I have heard people compare him to their favourite schoolteacher, someone whose expectations can be intimidating but similarly someone who you are genuinely fond of and who you know can bring the very best out of you.

He is a non-stop, perpetually driven ball of energy - but also fundamentally a man of compassion, a caring person with a natural sense of justice and someone whose main aim is to seek happiness and harmony in the dressing room.

It means he has to build and design a group that can create that required dynamic. That meant players like Shkodran Mustafi, Mesut Ozil, Sead Kolasinac and most recently Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were never going to last too long with Arteta at the helm.

Once he makes his mind up about the way he wants to go, he is unmovable. The pressure on all fronts for him to make peace with Ozil was as pointless as it was remorseless. Once he decided the German was surplus to requirements - a football decision based on his performance and attitude - his judgement was backed by the board and the German's stay at the club was over.

How he set about making a first impression
In his first club-wide meetings at Arsenal, Arteta spoke to the first team and all the staff about how lucky and privileged he was to have been given one of the great jobs in football at one of its top clubs in one of the greatest cities in the world.

But the fine words came with a caveat - namely that while they should all enjoy every privileged minute they had, they were all still going to have to work hard and to suffer. But they should enjoy the hard work that lay ahead.

It is said that one of Wenger's obsessions was loyalty to all those around him, which in the end made it difficult for him to implement much-needed changes. Also everything went through him, and in a modern club that is no longer an efficient way to run things.

Arteta is much more ruthless than Wenger, especially when working out just what somebody can bring to the club. He will not hesitate to grasp the nettle when it comes to making career-defining decisions regarding players.

Wenger's loyalty frequently clouded his judgement and the unwillingness of those close to him to change or adapt helped create the malaise that affected the club by the time of his departure.

Under Arteta there are new methods in place, creating a new energy. Emery helped by instilling a competitiveness at all levels but Arteta, considered more empathetic by the people who have known both regimes, has taken that to another level.

Gradually the message is coming across and the culture is being transformed.

The players are now finding themselves constantly challenged; competitiveness rather than a comfort blanket of mediocrity is now everywhere at the club. He has introduced maths and mind games, competitions among players and, above all, he and his staff spend much of the time noticing who leads the discussions, who is the most proactive and who consistently fails to join in. He realises the devil is always in the minor details.

It is for that reason he loves the contribution now being made by Martin Odegaard - intelligent, intuitive, empathetic, always willing to put the team first, constantly looking to improve.

Gone are the 'sick note' excuses that used to exist at Arsenal, with players looking for reasons not to play. That has been replaced with a desire from everyone to play every game, or at least do whatever is needed to put themselves in contention.

Arteta and his team will always look to those players who will go that extra mile not for themselves but for the team.

He also makes a point of getting close to them and all their families. When a key member of staff was considering another job offer, Arteta made it his business to contact his wife directly and ask her what she needed to make sure both she and her husband were happy at the club.

It is that attention to detail that marks much of the difference in this new regime.

His match talks - be they pre-match, half-time or full-time - are genuinely inspirational and he always somehow seems to get the right tone with an intensity I am reliably informed brings out goose bumps on the most seasoned professionals. Diego Maradona's death, Ukraine and the return of fans following their absence during the Covid-19 pandemic are some of the issues he has used to relate to players emotionally.

He is not the quickest to admit when he has made a mistake, although he invariably knows when he has done so. He is also not averse to taking risks if he feels that is the right thing to do, even against the judgement sometimes of those close to him. That means sometimes he probably feels a bit isolated, with his mind constantly looking forward, always a step ahead.

How are things working with the board?
At the moment the relationship is very good with owner Stan Kroenke and his son Josh, with whom Arteta has the most interaction. His message to them has always been that the most important thing at the club is its structure, and while he continually tries to get the best footballers to the club, equally important to him is striving to be - and be seen to be - the best at getting those players to climb aboard the Arsenal train.

Sometimes it means there are difficult conversations. He has had meetings with the owners where, pen in hand, he has defined what his vision for the club is in the short, medium and long term. Things like this would suggest he already carries the club on his shoulders.

His relationship with technical director Edu is so close that many assume they have known each other for years. The reality is the two men's paths never crossed in their Arsenal playing days and they only met for the first time shortly before the interview stage for the manager's job - although the bond is now so strong that they are helping each other to create that competitive culture.

The first time they ever spoke was on the phone and they spent the first hour talking about everything other than football. The connection that existed between the two was palpable from the outset and has gone from strength to strength in some darkish moments.

When Edu arrived at the club, there were things that were missing - it certainly wasn't the club he had left as a player in 2005 - so he needed little persuading in trying to create the new culture Arteta was looking for. He saw in Arteta a well-prepared coach with the style and clear ideology to take the club forward and a man who wanted the same as he did.

Edu also knew it would take a while to put in place that style and structure, and Arteta knows it is still a work in progress and that he has to build it day in, day out. The Spaniard is not averse to taking advice from those in power at the club and even from those around him but he is fundamentally his own man, one who knows his own mind and is definitely not for turning. He is well aware the buck stops with him.

How involved is he on the coaching side?

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