Mikel Arteta on Arsenal’s Dynasty Ambitions, Bruno Guimarães, and Managing the Modern Game: Men in Blazers 08/18/26

0:00Mikel Arteta:You're listening to the Men in Blazers Media Network, Suboptimal Radio. Obviously the energy that everybody has is like, I want to do it again. I want to go through that emotion again. The D word, dynasty. Well, this is what we want to create right now. And it has to be the ambition. And it is the ambition from the owners of this football club, from everybody on the board, from every staff members and ultimately from the players. And then you have to show that with facts and with actions. and when the staff wants to come early, when the board and the ownership are showing the level of commitment that they are showing and the players start to come early from the holidays, they are all good signs.

0:41It's a joy to welcome back, Mikel Arteta. Thank you so much. Mikel Arteta, defending Premier League champion.

0:50Mikel Arteta:Attacking! Another Premier League. That's where we're going. It's not defending, it's attacking. How's that sound to you? I love it. I love it because now we go for more and we want to create something much bigger than that. We created a foundation, we won it, but now it's something much bigger that we want to achieve as a club. I want to talk about all of that because you're very all-unafraid to talk about that next phase. Being a defending Premier League, attacking Premier League champion, has it changed anything at home? Have you changed? No, obviously. Now I've got inside me an experience that I will remember the rest of my life, which is sharing that day with all the players, with all the staff on that bus, with one and a half million people on the streets.

1:29Mikel Arteta:And that connection is something I've never witnessed in my life and that will stay forever. So let's start there, because that trophy celebration, the collective effervescence. However, whatever the number in North London, the celebrations around the world, Nairobi, Jakarta, Kampala, New York City. how do you understand it this Arsenal story of trying and failing and then achieving what is it that touches people so deeply around the world in your own words I think the capacity that this team has had to connect with the people I think we have transmitted something else than just playing football or making football actions they've seen how much we wanted it and when it's when it's tough and it's difficult and it takes a while I think you enjoy more you said the celebration was the best experience of your footballing life more than the trophy itself yes 100 because it's more meaningful because that shows you how people are attached to the football club that sense of belonging to something that you do that you have created and that's much bigger than that it was something spectacular to witness it comes with a lot of responsibility because now you have the realization of these people over the world are really pushing and caring about what we do and this has to elevate our will even to our higher demands.

2:50Bakai Osaka came on our show right after the trophy tour and he said this he said there's been so much jokes so much banter this is our time to talk because we've earned that right now what does it feel like to have silenced those who doubted you and forced them to listen.

3:08Mikel Arteta:I wouldn't focus on the people that you have to silence. I will focus on the people that hopefully you have opened their eyes or give them hope that when something is difficult, that doesn't mean that it's not going to happen. You pursue a dream and you are consistent, persistent and stubborn. Sometimes you can get that. So you've broken through the barrier, Mikel. You finally won. And what I want to know is, what happens now? Arsenal that fails has been the public identity. of this team for 22 years. Now you're leading an Arsenal that wins, a defending champion and attacking champion. When you walk back here, first day of pre-season, as champions, what felt different about the place?

3:48Mikel Arteta:I think, obviously, the energy that everybody has is like, I want to do it again. I want to go through that emotion again. So it's almost like something that gets installed on your base, and it's it. I really want to live that again. We need to start from day one, and we need to realise that it's going to be something that's going to demand a lot from everybody. But we have the ability to do it, and we can't go through that again. I'm interested, because last time we spoke, you talked about how your players were, quote, ready to explode, to show their fire on the pitch, their hunger to win. They exploded.

4:21You've won the title. That goal's achieved. Humans can switch off in those moments. But what's your message been? Because everyone around here is talking about squeezing lemons, and they're not afraid to talk about the D word, dinner sleep.

4:35Mikel Arteta:Well, this is what we want to create right now. And it has to be the ambition, and it is the ambition from the owners of this football club, from everybody on the board, from every staff member, and ultimately from the players. And then you have to show that with facts and with actions. And when the staff wants to come early, the staff is putting more hours in the summer to see, okay, where can we go next? When the board and the ownership are showing the level of commitment that they are showing, and the players start to come early from the holidays and start to go to Marbella, and they are already in good shape.

5:04Mikel Arteta:they are all good signs. So I want to ask you first about you as a manager. You've talked about how every summer you spend time looking at yourself in the mirror and asking yourself, am I the right person to be leading this team to the promised land? You say, I quote, judge myself. Am I still the right person to drive this club, this team forward? Now you've done it. What questions have you asked yourself this summer? Now what is going to require for Mikel to do it again and do it better. and I've done a lot of writing. I spent a lot of hours during the summer writing about where we want to take this football club, how we're going to do that and especially what is going to demand from one of the leaders in the organisation to do that, so what kind of version of Mikel is going to be needed.

5:50Mikel Arteta:And the first one is having even more enthusiasm about what is ahead. More enthusiasm? Yes. So the level of energy and how I'm going to connect better with the players and the staff and what is required in every department to give the best possibility or probability to the players to perform at the highest level. What are the conversations that have to be taken with ownership? What respect from our supporters as well, at home and away. So it's a lot to do. So let's talk about some of the changes. The big acquisition, the ferociously intelligent Bruno Guimares, who's a snarling ball of aggression.

6:23He's impossible to ignore. Coming from Newcastle for$101 million, another Brazilian at Arsenal. He's so versatile, he can play deep, he can set the tempo in the middle, he can crash the box and score goals. Can you describe in your own words what you would like Guimares and what he brings to this team?

6:42Mikel Arteta:A ball of fire and energy. I think what he's going to do is bring people with him, with that energy, with that enthusiasm. When I spoke to him and I sensed that desire to join the club and play for us and be involved in the journey that we want to produce. It's exactly what we need. That's only going to produce different standards. It's going to produce a different rhythm and a different aggression to the team, a different leadership. And this is how you create better competition within the squad. It's only this way that we can do it. Max Dowman was a revelation last season. He's had a very strong pre-season.

7:18He's still just 16. Can you talk about what role you see for him in the season ahead?

7:23Mikel Arteta:Well, he's evolving probably faster than everybody expected, but in a really settled way. I think he had some very good moments in games. Now we need to make him very consistent throughout games. But he's so willing. He has an amazing talent. We have the right people to take him through this journey. And then, like anybody else, he's going to have to end every minute that he's on that pitch because the competition is going to be strong. One of the challenges at the beginning of the season, William Saliba, an extended injury layoff. He's been such an important part of this team's success. I think Arsenal's win rate with him, 69 % of their games.

7:58How much will his absence at the start of the season affect your plans?

8:01Mikel Arteta:Hopefully nothing, because the system is so strong that can handle like he did last year, the year before, five or six injuries and the team performed. That's what I've been trying to create, a system that is not dependable of an individual or two or three that still can produce what the game requires to win consistently. I want to talk about that, the need to keep juggling, the exhaustion of the modern football calendar. The more successful you become, the more games you have to become, the more minutes these players have to log. I mean, Bakayo Saka, 3 ,256 minutes, just played a long World Cup.

8:35How much of a challenge is it for you to keep juggling the minutes, the minds, the bodies, and this just extended, ceaseless toll?

8:42Mikel Arteta:We need to prepare the athletes to be able to do that comfortably. And I think that has to be the mindset. If we try to prepare the athletes that we used to do and juggle through the season, I think juggling is a really unstable thing to maintain for 10 months. So we need players that are so stable, that are available, that are very robust, and they can still be decisive when the right actions come in the game. This is mind-blowing to me. You are the longest-serving manager in the Premier League. Can you believe that, Mikel? And what does it say about the state of the league from a manager's perspective?

9:14Mikel Arteta:Time flies and we have to leave our jobs daily with the gratitude and the passion that it's required because six years it is a lot in many ways, but it's not that much in many others. So we better keep it up. This is a strange season. This is the first one without one of Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho, Jurgen Klopp, Pec Guardiola. These guys seen as giants who hovered over the game. Nine clubs have changed their managers since last season. Does this create an opportunity for you? Because Arsenal seem like one of the most stable clubs in the Premier League. Or does it make it harder to plan because of all the uncertainty?

9:54Mikel Arteta:I think we have to create opportunity, not what happens around us. I think the opportunity has to create it with what we do daily to earn the right to be better than the rest. Who do you see as your biggest challenge? Ourselves. I think this is when I see the margins still that we have to improve and be better. I think it's a loss. So ultimately you are the protagonist of your own future. And that's how we prepare and evolve our club, our team, our squad, looking after the things that we control and we want to do. Because unfortunately, I wish, but unfortunately I cannot make decisions to influence negatively what other clubs can do.

10:32One of the clubs who made a change, Chelsea, well told story how you grew up in the Antigua neighbourhood in San Sebastian did I just botch that

10:40Mikel Arteta:is my basket okay yeah very good playing on the same youth team gravel pitches long time Xavi Alonso you've lived in Liverpool when you were a mighty blue he was playing for some other team you were neighbours he's taken over as Chelsea for the first time this season in the Premier League your great friend has become a rival manager what did you tell him when he took the job and how does that affect your relationship for this time with Andoni Raola that now is at Liverpool and the three of us used to play together. So it's something phenomenal, you know, that we used to live five minutes away from each other, play for the same team, and now managing three different Premier League clubs at the highest level.

11:17Mikel Arteta:It's just remarkable. Yeah, I wish them all the best, except against us, because we know how it is. But yeah, it makes me really proud. Do you talk to him about the Premier League management? Now he's here, are you like... Yeah, we have, obviously. We have talked with both of them, and I think we all feel in the same way. Extremely proud, but yeah, there is this rivalry and everybody has to look after this club. The rest of the world looks at it as crazy, the photo every time you play. How do you understand that? There is something ignited in that culture. The passion that we have for the game, the respect we have for the game.

11:49Mikel Arteta:I think the word rate, I think the values that we defend and we want to implement in the club. And yeah, how dedicated we are probably. You're a man who does not sit still. You're constantly looking to evolve. you're constantly looking to find a new marginal gain. What is the focus for you in this evolution this season for Arsenal? The margin has to be daily in the habits and the way that we behave and the actions that we take. Because if we do that, it's going to elevate daily everybody around the place. And that's the biggest margin that we have. We have a little bit better every single day.

12:23Mikel Arteta:So when we come to May, we'll be much better. Two years ago, we sat here, you talked to me, the margin would be about set pieces. a year ago you told me you developed new set pieces because the league had caught up and you turned out to be completely true how do you keep evolving tactically there because referees have been told to be tougher in the box on the attacking physicality one of the things that obviously we have to evolve is the availability and robustness of our plays because the demands are higher the volume play will be higher we have new rules in the Premier League as well we're going to bring some constraints in the manner that says you can do certain things so we have to be ready for it what's your biggest fear Mikkel?

13:00Mikel Arteta:Fear. I don't like a lot that word. Do you not feel it ever? Well I don't know if I'm about to have an accident or something or with my kids it's just no it's no fear. I think with this job I feel desire, I feel motivation, I feel hunger to do my best, to transmit my emotion, my passion, my ideas in the best possible way and to make sure that everybody enjoys the journey because ultimately that's what is going to help us to achieve what we want. So what is the greatest challenge then that you feel between you and your goal for this season? To be better than next season so not to be thinking what we did last season but to be fully focused on the qualities and capacity that we have as a club as a team to to be even better.

13:42So that's ultimately you channel everything into just positive for every everything every negative I throw at you you just immediately flip into a positive everything that is a challenge you turn into an opportunity that's ultimately what you're doing, constantly turning yourself into the protagonist, not the victim.

13:58Mikel Arteta:Yes, obviously acknowledging the things that have to be better, talking about them in a really direct and natural way but obviously seeking always with the solution and the ambition, that's how we're going to do that better and improve. Last year you said success, winning a trophy. How has that definition of success changed for this season and how do we measure it? Didn't say that. Just winning one trophy I said. competing for every trophy and getting all of it and especially being us and making sure that we give the best version for ourselves because that's when it's going to give us the biggest probability for me to win major trophies.

14:37I'm going to say these things can you finish the sentence Arsenal at their best are what, Mikael?

14:41Mikel Arteta:We are all connected. The one thing that every great captain has is the capacity to touch people and to bring people together. If people spent one day in my job Mine. Yeah, not mine. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, Mikel. What's the one thing that would surprise them the most? How long the day is and the amount of things and decisions that you have to make that probably are not related to anything on the football pitch. The thing I'm most proud of during my Arsenal tenure is… I think the relationship that we have built both with the players, the staff and with our supporters. Winning a Premier League title feels like…

15:18Mikel Arteta:It's something unique, I think. What we went through that day with all our people, it was one of the most amazing days of my life. And now you've won. Everyone was saying, until you win a title, you can't win a title, which is crazy logic. It's what all the pundits said. It was like, catch 22. Now you've won. What happens now? They're desperate to win more and hungrier than before to win more. How has win the dog changed? Instead of win, it's won. And now we're going to put it, we want to win again. By the way, win the dog is brilliant, man. It really is. you know a lot of what you did everyone wanted to laugh at each thing but win the dog is it as simple as this just get a dog make everyone love them call it win and then nominative determinism does the rest i wish it was that simple to you to health to happiness congratulations