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Sky Sports Premier League Podcast: Episode Summary
Episode Title
One on One | Arteta on his first dressing room and how it compares to Arsenal's
Episode Description This episode features Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta discussing his early experiences in a senior dressing room at Barcelona and contrasting them with the current environment at Arsenal. Arteta shares insights on building a team culture, the significance of role models, and what it takes to succeed in the Premier League.
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Key Themes and Discussions
- Arteta's Early Experiences in Barcelona
- First Dressing Room:
- Joined Barcelona at age 16.
- Felt nervous and uncertain about his place.
- Senior players, notably Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique, played vital roles in supporting young players.
- Building a Culture at Arsenal
- Importance of Standards:
- Emphasizes the need for daily standards and expectations within the club.
- Expresses that those unwilling to uphold these standards can’t be part of the team.
- Role of Senior Players:
- Acknowledges that not all players have the advantage of mentors like Guardiola and Enrique.
- Identifies current senior players at Arsenal who guide younger teammates.
- Managing Young Talent
- Comparison of Generations:
- Discusses how today's young players, such as 15-year-old Max Dowman, face different challenges than he did.
- Reflects on the protective environment and different regulations affecting young athletes in the UK.
- Media and Social Pressure:
- Addresses the impact of social media on young players, emphasizing the need for emotional support and preparation.
- Importance of family dynamics in managing external pressures.
- Joy in the Game
- Balancing Information and Enjoyment:
- Emphasizes the importance of retaining joy in playing football amidst pressures and information overload.
- Advocates for communication and understanding to create a harmonious team environment.
- Cultural Diversity in Dressing Room
- Benefits of Multilingualism:
- Discusses the advantages of having players from diverse backgrounds and languages.
- Stresses the importance of building connections and communication for team cohesion.
- Advice for Young Footballers
- Finding the Right Environment:
- Encourages young players to surround themselves with supportive and skilled individuals.
- Highlights that talent alone isn't enough without the right support system.
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Key Takeaways
- Leadership Qualities: Arteta values players who lead by example rather than just offering verbal motivation.
- Support for Young Players: There’s a strong emphasis on protecting and nurturing young talent within the club.
- Cultural Fusion: Arteta highlights the enriching experience of having a diverse squad and the potential it brings to personal and professional growth.
- Emotional Stability: Understanding the emotional challenges young players face is essential for their development.
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Conclusion The episode provides deep insights into Mikel Arteta's philosophy on youth development, team culture, and the role of senior players in shaping a successful football environment. His reflections on his early experiences inform his current practices at Arsenal, demonstrating a commitment to fostering a supportive and competitive atmosphere that balances professionalism with the joy of playing football.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:02Mikel Arteta:There has to be some standards that have to be driven every single day. And whoever is not willing, especially to continue with them, you cannot be part of what we do. I don't think you can be happy when you don't have the capacity and the ability to communicate with people. You cannot be yourself, you don't get to really understand people, and that puts you in a dark place. Martin has a unique ability that without opening his mouth he can be a role model
0:32Joe:Who were those sort of senior players you can remember when you first arrived in that Barcelona dressing room?
0:37Mikel Arteta:Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique Don't get better than that They were two straight away they were under my wing and they helped me a lot
0:49Joe:Hello, I'm Joe Tomlinson And I'm Juliet Farrington And welcome back to One on One from Sky Sports, the podcast where one of us sits down with a big name in football. And Joe, we did tease this a little bit in last week's episode, but you've been to see Mikel Arteta at Arsenal and the timing couldn't have been any better. Absolutely spot on with our time. And he was on great form, to be honest with you. This was obviously recorded before the Newcastle victory, but nevertheless, I think he was super generous with his time with me. and as you'll hear we covered a lot of ground in this interview we talked about building a dressing room culture from the ground up to the importance of players learning the language of the dressing room he discusses what his captain Martin Odegaard brings to the side and he tells me why Kai Havertz is leading from the front as he rehabs from his latest injury but we also started talking about some of the young players in his team that have made huge headlines this season and managing the likes of 15 year old Max Daumann this is my one-on-one with Mikel Arteta
1:52Joe:Mikel, thank you so much for joining me today. I really want to get a bit of insight from you today about the modern footballer compared to when you were growing up playing football in a dressing room you were a part of. I want to take you back to your first ever dressing room. Do you remember stepping up into your first senior dressing room and what was that experience like?
2:10Mikel Arteta:Well, that was in Barcelona. Yeah. And very nervous, very excited and didn't really know how to behave, where to sit, who to talk to. I was very lucky that there was some senior players looking after those kids and amazing times. How old were you then? I was 16.
2:30Joe:That's incredible, isn't it? Now you look at the dressing room today, I want to contrast it a little bit with that experience. How has the dressing room environment changed from your playing days when you first broke through to what you see now?
2:42Mikel Arteta:Well, I think it will be different in many sense, but in the way that those young kids feel exactly the same, That's why every time I think about an academy player, a young player that is moving to that dressing room, okay, let's put them in their shoes, how they're feeling, what they're looking at, and actually what they need to straight away feel comfortable and be reassured that they have to feel like anybody that's in that dressing room.
3:07Joe:You mentioned that senior players were helpful when you first arrived. Who were those sort of senior players you can remember when you first arrived in that Barcelona dressing room?
3:15Mikel Arteta:Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique. they're too straight away that they were under my wing and they helped me a lot
3:23Joe:and how important is it to have obviously not everybody can have Pep Guardiola Luis Enrique but senior players even nowadays you look at your own dressing room who is it in your dressing room now you think is your Pep Guardiola, is your Luis Enrique at Arsenal?
3:36Mikel Arteta:There are a few to be fair I think depending on that player what is coming down the language if they have any relationship before there is always a connection and that's something I think as coaches we need to understand not only with players but it can be a master it can be a physio it can be one of the chefs it has to be somebody and that link has to be created across the club for that player to feel that he can turn up and see people that he can trust and ask questions if he needs to and feel comfortable
4:14Joe:on his debut for Arsenal wins of a penalty. Obviously, you said you were 16, I think, when you first got into that senior dressing room. We're seeing 15-year-olds playing there now. We're seeing very young players in the modern game. Is that a different 15-, 16-year-old to the 15-, 16-year-old you were when you were first entering that dressing room?
4:32Mikel Arteta:It is, and especially here in this country because they're not allowed to be in our dressing room.
4:37Joe:Of course, Max isn't in.
4:38Mikel Arteta:So at that time in Spain, I was with them. I was in the dressing room with them, in the showers with them, training with them with Max, Ethan, Miles till last year they weren't allowed to be in our dressing room so the rules are different so that makes it a bit harder as well.
4:52Joe:Do you think that's a good thing though? That they are bled in a little bit more slowly or do you think those rules are the sort of things that... I understand the reason
4:58Mikel Arteta:of the rules in relation to them be part of a team is not helpful.
5:04Joe:Miles Lewis-Skeney!
5:09Joe:The boy becomes a man and win what style and what about these young players obviously the pressure the spotlight is so big now maybe even bigger than when you were a player with things like social media how does that affect the modern footballer that is younger and coming into the team
5:26Mikel Arteta:well immediately your life changes the moment that you make that step the way that people can perceive you the way that people start to judge you is much faster it can be very cruel and I think we need to educate them and their families is to make sure that they know what they are doing when they are looking and reading certain things because you need to be prepared for that.
5:48Joe:Because I think as well, the footballers that I speak to, sometimes it might not even be them, it might be the family members that are seeing more than they are, right?
5:56Mikel Arteta:Exactly, but your mood is affected by the people, the closest people that you have around you. And a lot of times probably you are good and you come home and you are happy and you sense something strange, you don't really know what's happening. And it's because they've been reading certain stuff that is affecting them emotionally because it does affect you. But he's not aware of that person. The protagonist is not aware. So that's why I always say that the most important people are probably the closest one around that makes sure that they're emotionally stable and they can provide that another way around.
6:25Joe:Do you feel protective of these players? Because obviously these are almost like your family, aren't they? And I know some of the players, similar age to some of your own young boys, really, aren't they?
6:34Mikel Arteta:Very, because in a very short period of time, their life changes. They stop their education and they have to education in a different way. Sometimes they need to move to a different area to live with their parents. Sometimes they start to live with other families. Suddenly have different schedule. The time changes. The demands change immediately. They have to be in the gym. They have to have certain habits. While they are eating, the information becomes huge. The demands are immediate. The judgment is immediate. So it's a lot of things. and sometimes we do that and at the same time we're taking their joy away which is the moments that they can have in their free time or their parents or certain things that they can do or they are allowed to do when they are away from the first team environment but you're not allowed to do when you're in the first team environment.
7:23Joe:How do you find that joy in players? Because I think about a lot of youngsters playing football I think a lot of people nowadays would say that they aren't quite as joyful in their expression of playing now maybe they're a little bit more robotic Do you agree with that or do you think that that is maybe a bit of a falsehood?
7:38Mikel Arteta:It is. And I speak a lot with the young players and our current players about it. And I said, if you were the manager, would you do something different? And I said, because someday we feel like we can restrict you and the amount of information and the things that you need to dominate to give yourself the best chance to compete and to win games, probably is not the best thing. But I said, yeah, without this information, you are lost. You feel lost in the game. And if you're not securing the pitch and you don't know exactly what's going to happen, that can take the joy out as well. So it's a really difficult balance.
8:10Joe:Also, it's not just, I suppose, young players that are feeling that pressure, but players that are coming over from new environments. Maybe they're coming from different languages or different cultures. How have you found, now your seventh season at Arsenal, betting those players in? How have you grown into that role?
8:26Mikel Arteta:Well, there are certain challenges for young players, for new players, people coming from abroad. but what I would really like to highlight is the opportunity and the beauty of it. I mean, you come to Arsenal, you have a chance to play for the first team, you are surrounded by 20, 24 different nationalities. I mean, how good is that for yourself, for your education, for your experiences, for the amount of things that you can take away from that and become a better person and a better player? And focus on that. I mean, the enjoyment part and the fulfilling part has to be, okay, you decide that this is your dream.
8:59Mikel Arteta:Now you have it. Get on board with it.
9:02Joe:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, how many languages did you speak, Mikel?
9:04Mikel Arteta:Six or seven.
9:05Joe:Six or seven. I think that must help, right? That must help culturally when you've got a new player that comes into environment. Maybe it's Christian Mosquera or another new signing. Being able to converse and speak on a level must help.
9:17Mikel Arteta:I did it by necessity. Because the first time I moved, it was to Barcelona. So I could speak Basque and Spanish. I moved to Barcelona. It was Catalan. and I straight away had to go to a school. Everything was in Catalan. So I was struggling. So I need to learn the language. After that, I went to Paris and it was French. And you cannot be yourself. I don't think you can be happy when you don't have the capacity and the ability to communicate with people. You cannot be yourself. You don't get to really understand people deeply, to build relationships. And that puts you in a dark place. And there were moments in Paris that, yeah, and I had Brazilians, Spanish, Portuguese, I could do.
9:58Mikel Arteta:You don't feel like you belong there. So I just promised to myself, wherever I go, I will speak the language as quick as possible. And that has made the opportunity as well to meet some incredible people and to make connections, to travel the world and enjoy much more.
10:14Joe:Do you think that's something that you're seeing more now compared to when you were in the dressing room, players that can speak multiple languages? I was listening to a podcast with Wayne Rooney yesterday. He was saying Kai, his son, speaks fluent Spanish. Incredible at that age. Has that happened a lot more than when you were growing up?
10:26Mikel Arteta:I will certainly promote that and the way education is going. And we don't know for our kids the jobs they're going to have in the next five, not even 20 years, five or 10 years. So having the capacity just to communicate, to get to people, to put your ideas together, to learn from other people, you need that skill. I think if you can get that, then the idea you do it, less effort you have to put because it's amazing. My kids, they speak two or three languages already and they are so fluent and you are jealous, you know. You said, how is that possible? They haven't really done much and they are much better than us.
11:02Mikel Arteta:I said, do it because it's for the rest of your life.
11:05Joe:Yeah, absolutely. And obviously one of the things I think you've done amazingly well here, Mikel, is build a real culture around the team. And I think that is partly down to having lots of different cultural identities within the group, within the dressing room. How do you get all of those to fuse? Because we speak about languages, but it's not always just language, is it? It gets people to come together.
11:23Mikel Arteta:Yeah, but I mean, if you can communicate between ourselves, how the hell are we going to be aligned? True. You know, so first of all, yeah, somebody has to put a vision there and starting from ownership, a purpose to what we do. And once we have that, yeah, there has to be some standards that have to be driven every single day. Whoever is not willing, especially to continue with them, it cannot be part of what we do. And I think the club has been exceptional at doing that and promoting that in every single department and then recruit good people and you'll be in better hands. That's it, it's simple.
Read the full transcript
12:00Joe:And do you think it's easier to sculpt those younger players maybe? Because I look at the average age of the Arsenal squad this season, it's so young. There's not very many players over the age of 30. Is it easier to sculpt the younger players you think nowadays?
12:13Mikel Arteta:It is easier, but I think you need the seniors and the ones with a lot of experience and I think we got some great characters over the years that has helped those young players as well to get on the right pathway and to support them and give them the role models that they need. And not sometimes the one that they want, but the ones that they certainly need to be consistent after to establish yourself at this level. And we are very privileged to have them.
12:39Joe:And who do you look at now in this dressing room and think they could be a role model? They are a role model for the younger players coming through in the academy or they've just entered into the first team?
12:48Mikel Arteta:A lot. You can look at Martin in his own way. Bukayo in a very different way. You see Declan, you see Mikel, you see David, you see Jurgen, you see Ben White. I mean, a lot. You see Kai, the way he does a rehab. If somebody's injured in any sport, I would say come five days to Arsenal and have a look how this guy puts his profession in front of anything else. And he's got a family and he's got dogs that he lives, but look how he lives his profession. That's the example. Gabi Jesus is exactly the same. And that's the things that you need because through your career, you're going to go to those stages.
13:24Mikel Arteta:So the managers and managers of this world, one day, hopefully not, but one day they might be in that position. Learn now, look how they take that to look after themselves, to give them the best chance to continue to be at the highest level.
13:36Joe:It's played forward here for Kai Havertz. O'Donoghue!
13:42Joe:Arsenal are out of the box! Yeah, I wanted to pick out one player you mentioned there, Martin O'Donoghue, who's obviously captain, and he was made captain quite young as well. What was it about Martin O'Donoghue as sort of a modern professional footballer that you looked at and thought, this is the guy I want fronting the Arsenal badge?
14:00Mikel Arteta:Martin has a unique ability that without opening his mouth, he can be a role model. You know, a lot of people are great at talking and giving pep talks and all that, but not that good at actually providing actions that reflect those speeches or those words. Martin is absolutely the opposite. Everything that he does, the way he behaves, the way he looks after people it's just promoting that
14:24Joe:I think I want to finish on a question about advice for young players that are maybe coming through and maybe they're not at a club like Arsenal that have the standards or the brilliance around them what would your advice be to young footballers now modern footballers that are looking to make it in the professional game?
14:45Mikel Arteta:I would say probably the most important thing is get yourself the right context get yourself involved with the best people around you if you have the talent you put the work that's the only thing that you have because you can have the talent you don't have the right people around you I think it's very difficult to do it Mikel, I love that thank you so much
15:07Joe:Joe, that was a really well thought answer Mikel Arteta finished with there and I guess he's given so many pieces of advice over the years and his advice for young players but in fairness to him as well. People talk about Mikel Arteta. People talk about he has to win something. But the way he has developed and built Arsenal to the way it is run now and using a lot of the academy players says everything about him. No? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you can feel it when you step in to the Arsenal training ground or the stadium. You can feel the hell and pathway is big there. Like, doesn't matter who you speak to, whether it's the press officer or it's the youth team coach, whether it's Mikel Arteta clearly getting young players in that side is important to him and you look at the average age of the Arsenal team it is super young but it is important like he said in that answer to have the right people around you and I don't think that's just in the dressing room I mean Mikel Arteta's two names that helped him when he stepped up Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique not bad names I think it's really interesting though some of the personalities that help in his young players in the changing room I saw Declan Rice recently talking about his connection with Max Dowman, how Max was FaceTiming him from the school gates.
16:18Joe:And to be honest with you, I think it is important that he stays protective of his young players because they're around the same age as some of his sons. So clearly he knows exactly how they feel. Yeah, you'd imagine as well that must be a real challenge for him to get that blend right. As you say, probably a similar age to his children and between the very young in the team and those more experienced players. and it's those players that they can lean on if they need that bit of advice or they need to be protected but he does seem to be getting it right doesn't he absolutely and I think it's quite important that some of the players that are giving advice have led a similar pathway you think of Declan Rice and Bakayosaka two huge standout superstars for their young age in the English national team Kai Havertz when he broke through in Germany was sold for a massive amount of money and extremely young age and even Martin Odegaard who we talked about there he's almost the prototypical wonder kid I remember him breaking through at 15 moving to Real Madrid so he knows exactly what it's like to be a 15 16 year old lad in the headlights with the world talking about you and I think it's really interesting to hear him speak about creating a culture around players like Martin Odegaard because yes he might have had some ups and downs on the pitch over the last 18 months but off the pitch he is a pure leader martin early garden i don't think that is spoken about enough and i don't think it's spoken about enough the culture that arteta has created that could literally help arsenal get them over the line to win the premier league this season they've been phenomenal at the start of the campaign taking some huge scalps they've played very young players in very difficult moments but one thing i really want to highlight is how passionately he spoke about bringing not only young players but foreign players into the dressing room how he can communicate and how much of an impact they can have the different languages and how important that can be I think it's very very Pep Guardiola you've spoken to Pep Guardiola in the past Jules and obviously he's worked with Pep before do you think that mirrors him a little bit I do I think with Pep Guardiola he often talked and he definitely talked about it a lot last season but he's always said about go and experience other cultures go and experience different countries because that is how you learn and that is how you develop as a person.
18:33Joe:And yeah, Michael Arteta seems to be doing that perfectly. So thanks, yeah, for listening to One on One from Sky Sports. Joe, you are on an absolute roll because you have another one lined up for next week. Yeah, I spoke to Michael Arteta about young superstars in the Premier League and I'm off to meet another one who is making a huge name for himself in West London. No spoilers, but he plays in white. and he definitely should have scored at least one goal this season. He's definitely been in the headlines. Looking forward to this one, Joe. So if you don't want to miss next week's episode, make sure you give us a follow wherever you are listening to us so you don't miss out.
19:12Joe:And you know by now that as well as listening to us, you can watch our interviews too on Sky Sports News, on our YouTube channels and on the Sky Sports website and app. So we'll talk to you soon, Joe. See you later, Jules.
19:27Joe:Hello, I'm Nikita Potos. And I'm Jordan Nobs. And you can hear these two Lionesses legends every week on Pitch to Pod from Sky Sports, where they bring your topics straight from the pitch to their podcast. We talk everything football, WSL and beyond. So what are you waiting for? Search for Pitch to Pod with Jordan and Nikita wherever you listen to your podcast and give us a follow so you don't miss us at all. That's Pitch the Pod with Jordan and Nikita from Sky Sports.
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