Arteta's winning mentality

* Arsenal - Man City: 10pm today, on MetaSports.

Every day around 5:30 a.m. in North London, Arteta wakes up with the thought of winning. If he doesn't sleep well, it's usually because he hasn't figured out how to win, including the arrangement of the starting lineup or the tactical options to defeat the opponent. When he arrived at the office with a glass face overlooking the training fields at London Colney, Arteta sat down at his desk and continued to think. If the solution didn't come, Arteta would write or go for a walk to rearrange the pieces.

Winning football matches has haunted Arteta since he was a kid, running around makeshift soccer fields on the beach in San Sebastian, which change shape with the ebb and flow of the tide. Throughout his career as a player and now as a coach, the question for Arteta has always been: "How to win?". When he retires and is no longer involved in football, as Arteta admits, he will probably still think about this question.

Win, Arsenal's dog, greets a GQ reporter in the hallway outside Arteta's office on a bright July afternoon. Win - a chocolate brown labrador with a sleepy smile - was brought in by Arteta earlier this year to help Arsenal win. "What are we here for? We're here to win, because we all love to win. So this dog has to be named Win," said Arteta, laughing.

Arteta is wearing Arsenal's training uniform, brand-new socks, toned jaw and strong hairline of a Disney prince. The 41-year-old has just returned from enjoying a summer vacation with his family in Greece, where he plays tennis and tries not to turn on his phone too often. But by the second week of the holiday, he was forced to use his phone more because of the transfer window. Arteta's children are now starting to ask: "Why didn't you buy this player? Why didn't you choose this player for this game?".

In the interview with GQ, Arteta said some variation of the word "win" 61 times, and - at least in part - talked about defeat. Those were the last days before he and the whole team set off for pre-season friendlies in Germany and the US. Arteta takes advantage of the little time at Colney headquarters to re-evaluate the 2022-2023 season, before focusing on the new season.

At the end of last season, Arsenal - which had led the Premier League for nine months - fell without stopping. Topping out by eight points in January, the young team played the most exciting football in the league, but injuries and a string of poor results in the sprint caused the "Gunners" to lose their top spot and title. the enemy into the hands of Man City.

After the season ended, Arteta needed time to feel the pain and be honest with himself. "I had to go through it and it took me a few weeks," the 41-year-old coach said. "I don't know if I made it through, and maybe I don't because I need that pain to get better."

Last season, Arteta did not give up his ambition to win the Premier League, until winning the Cup was impossible. But his mood changed after a series of draws in April. "A lot of things happened in those games," said the Spaniard.

First, Arsenal led 2-0 but only drew 2-2 at Liverpool's Anfield ground by Roberto Firmino's 87th-minute header. At the time, Arteta thought this was just a small step in Arsenal's extraordinary season.

But the same scenario comes in the trip to West Ham. Then back to the Emirates Stadium to meet Southampton, the "Gunners" experienced another disaster when conceding in the first minute and being held to a 3-3 draw. After the referee blew the final whistle, the entire Arsenal team collapsed to the floor like puppets, as their championship hopes drifted with the game.

"This couldn't have happened. We were dominant from start to finish," Arteta told his players after the game. At that time, a draw is as painful as defeat. In the dressing room, Arteta expressed pride at the team's fighting spirit, but felt Arsenal had to win. But things don't stop there.

A former player who returned and helped Arsenal win the Premier League for the first time since the 2003-2004 unbeaten season is like a fairy tale, and Arteta's defeat of Pep Guardiola - with whom he used to work as an assistant in the Premier League. Man City - to win the title makes everything even better. But expectations dwindled from the Southampton draw, and vanished long before Arsenal's title was mathematically impossible.

The 1-4 loss to Man City at the Etihad at the end of April only made the difference in class, level and mentality between Arsenal and the rival, at least in important stages. In football, negative feelings are contagious. Arteta admits this could be the cause of Arsenal's decline, but he added that "too much positivity can also be harmful".

There were moments that made Arsenal fans regret and say the phrase "if only", including Bukayo Saka's free-kick from the post before West Ham equalized, or Reiss Nelson's miss in injury time. Southampton draw time. "There are certain elements that you have to have to win the title. We've had a lot, but it's not enough," said Arteta, pointing out that Arsenal have not been able to cope well with injuries throughout the season. prize.

Looking back on last season, Arteta does not praise a single player having a great season, not even stars like Bukayo Saka or Gabriel Martinelli. Instead, he spoke cautiously of how "several young players have helped Arsenal reach new heights", noting that it would not have been possible without more experienced members of the team.

Arteta is also cautious about both his music and clothing choices, not wanting to be distracted from the message that he is here to win. But the Spain coach still had a polite charm and always looked GQ reporters in the eye during the serious parts of the interview. When asked about his personality, Arteta smiled and replied that he wanted others to comment on him. When asked how the players feel, Arteta hopes they know he is a genuine, honest person who, despite his mistakes, always wants to give the best for the club.

Talking about his playing days, Arteta admits that his shortcomings were soon revealed, unlike his colleagues who often only learned to face the limits of talent when they were older. "I was really small, thin when I was young. I was never the strongest or the fastest, but cunning and competitive," the Arsenal head coach said.

Barca's La Masia Academy is a famous training ground, the starting point of world-class players. But when he arrived at the age of 15, Arteta felt he was not up to the mark. In the room, Arteta shared a bunk bed with Pepe Reina, Andres Iniesta, Victor Valdes, Thiago Motta, Xavi Hernandez and Carles Puyol - all of whom became top stars and world champions. "It was a shock," Arteta exclaimed. "I thought I was good, but these guys are incredible. I thought to myself, am I good enough to last?"

Traveling long distances on his own to a completely strange place left Arteta disoriented, but he quickly regained his motivation when Barca's football field was only a few meters from his bedroom. What the young Spaniard began to understand at La Masia was that a team must take care of each other to succeed: that in football you need others. "The sky opened up to me a different way of understanding football and I loved it. It was probably the best time of my life," recalled Arteta.

Arteta never made it to the Barca first team, but moved to PSG, Rangers and Real Sociedad before signing for Everton in 2005. There, the atmosphere immediately changed. "Everton manager then David Moyes created a very special environment, so I felt very welcome from the start," Arteta said. "You have to be ready for the challenge in football. Moyes has always shown loyalty and protection in the way players play. I am very happy to work with him."

Despite his outstanding talent, Arteta was repeatedly excluded from the Spain team, because he could not compete with the best midfielders in history, such as Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Cesc Fabregas or David Silva, and also the lack of talent. lucky. A few days after his first call-up in February 2009, Arteta ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament against Newcastle and was placed on a stretcher. "It was very difficult because playing for the national team was one of my biggest dreams and I didn't make it," the 1982 former midfielder said of his frustration at being ungrateful with Spain. "I didn't give up and kept trying when I came back, but that didn't happen."

It was one of those moments so close to success in Arteta's career, but the ending was disappointing. However, looking back now, he sees the positives from this injury. The recovery process was a long battle mentally and physically, with doctors saying Arteta would be lucky if he could return to play. At that time, if he could return, Arteta promised himself that he would enjoy football because he did not know how long his career could last. "I always thought there was a reason. I'm sure you don't see it now, but over time, I did," Arteta said. A year later, he left Everton to join Arsenal.

Arteta is excited to come to Arsenal for reasons that he feels are both obvious and difficult to put into words. "This club has aura, elegance and class at the level of ...", he paused and continued. "You have it or you don't. You know what I mean?"

Arteta scored 16 goals in 150 appearances for Arsenal, many of which were captained. Unsurprisingly, Arteta's most memorable match was the 3-2 win over Hull in the 2013-14 FA Cup final and ended nine years empty-handed. "It was a great moment," he recalls. "Arsene Wenger has a very difficult time and that's what drives the whole team to work for him, to prove everyone wrong. Wenger never asked for it, but we wanted to do it. thing for him".

One of the strangest aspects of a football career is that many of the players who have waved goodbye may return to the club in the near future. In Colney's upstairs office, Arteta's former team-mate - former centre-back Per Mertesacker - is working as Arsenal Academy Director. On some afternoons, Mertesacker went down to Arteta's office and they reminisced about their time at the top.

Arteta himself was offered the position of Academy Director after retiring in 2016, but turned it down because of his lack of experience in running an academy. What he learned playing under Wenger, and before that seeing the "blind faith" that coach Luis Fernandez had in him at PSG, was that behind the best players there are coaches who make them believe in their success. mighty.

Arteta met Guardiola at La Masia when he was a teenager and Guardiola - who is 10 years older - is playing for Barca's first team. "Guardiola was interested in me from the beginning and from that day on, I really bonded with him," Arteta said. When he retired in 2016, Arteta was invited by Guardiola to be an assistant at Man City. With Guardiola, Arteta was "ready to give his life for him".

Arteta always wanted to return to Arsenal, but when he was offered the job by his former club in 2019, he hesitated and doubted himself. "It was mid-season and it was going to be my first time as a manager of a club," recalled Arteta. At the age of 37, Arteta feared that he was not ready to take on such a big job. It was Guardiola who advised his juniors to accept when he said: "You are ready. If you do not accept, I will kick your ass".

A few years ago, Arteta began to explore other sports, such as handball, rowing, rugby, to understand new ways of thinking that helped him see football in a different way. He met a number of football coaches such as Matthew Patrick LaFleur of the Green Bay Packers or Sean McVay of the LA Rams.

With McVay, Arteta learned how to better manage large groups through smarter meetings and set reading assignments. When he started learning about football culture, Arteta was struck by the level of responsibility each player had and the methods they used to solve problems within the team. The Arsenal manager also reads books on decision making, including "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell and "Noise" by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein.

Understanding the system in other sports has shown Arteta that there are different ways of managing players. Arteta likes to see and find out what each person wants, which is why when he arrived at Arsenal, he found that it was a matter of how the people at the club felt. It's not an environment where the entire team can feel safe and share the same values. He knew that Arsenal needed to return to being a unified club, and so he planted new roots.

When he returned to the Emirates Stadium, Arteta bought a 150-year-old olive tree and planted it on the grounds between the office and the training grounds. He looks at the olive tree every day and the players walk past it as a physical reminder of what they are caring for together. Olive trees, like the "Enjoy" poster on Arteta's office wall, or drawings of hearts and minds holding hands, appear in the Amazon documentary All or Nothing , is part of Arteta's sincere, open ethos as head coach. He doesn't care that some people laugh at his whiteboard doodles. What Arteta has brought to Arsenal after a few years of wilderness under Wenger's shadow is a great source of energy and faith.

When the GQ magazine reporter arrived at the training ground, a boy was waiting just outside the fence, holding a piece of paper that said "Rice". Although Arteta did not reveal anything, his wish came true a few weeks later when Rice officially joined Arsenal for a total of $ 137 million and became the most expensive contract in the club's history. The "Gunners" also spent more than $ 100 million to recruit Kai Havertz of Chelsea and Jurrien Timber of Ajax, signaling ruthless ambition with the foundation of the early successes of last season.

Also in the summer transfer window of 2023, Saudi Arabian clubs continuously stirred when in turn persuaded stars like Karim Benzema, Roberto Firmino, Riyad Mahrez, Jordan Henderson or Ruben Neves to move to the Saudi Pro League with much higher incomes. times in Europe. In the English Premier League, Man City, Newcastle, Chelsea, Man Utd or Liverpool also shopped for a more successful new season.

GQ magazine reporter asked if Arteta was worried about trying to compete with clubs with financial potential and a thick, quality force. "You don't do it with money, believe me," the Spaniard replied, referring to Man City's historic treble last season. "There are a lot of right, rigorous, smart decisions in certain times. Money can't buy them all."

Another question is whether Arsenal will throw away their rare chance to win the Premier League, or what happened last season was the first flash of a collective destined for greatness at the Emirates Stadium. Arteta believes he and his students can win the Premier League next season. "If I didn't trust it, I wouldn't be sitting here," he said shortly.

Speaking more about the 2023-2024 season, Arteta wants to see Arsenal determined to become the strongest club. He believes that helping players enjoy football is the way for the club to achieve results. By rebuilding Arsenal's spirit, as well as through any tactical changes on the pitch, Arteta has helped the club and fans feel optimistic again. He watched the players grow day by day, on the pitch next to the olive tree with its branches reaching up to the sky. "I like to win," Arteta said. "But we have to deserve the victory."

Arteta really wants to be the best coach in the world and win every game next season. But the defeat helped the Spanish coach face his fear of freedom. "When I decided to become a coach, I had to make one thing clear: I don't know if I will be sacked tomorrow, a month, a year, but it will happen," Arteta said. "I don't want to leave my job with the fear of 'What if?'".