Per Mertesacker: Arsenal academy boss on his 11-year friendship with Mikel Arteta, producing the next Bukayo Saka and new docuseries Inside Hale End
It was one of their worst ever defeats, but the recent histories of Arsenal, Mikel Arteta, Per Mertesacker and the club’s Hale End academy would look very different had Arsene Wenger’s team not lost 8-2 at Manchester United in August 2011.
That setback prompted a transfer deadline-day trolley dash for five new signings, the most high-profile of whom were Arteta and Mertesacker. Eleven years on, the two men are steering Arsenal in the post-Wenger era as manager and head of the academy respectively. Humiliation at Old Trafford proved to be a monumental sliding doors moment.
“We haven’t spoken about our 11 years anniversary but it’s good to reflect and I always come back to these kind of ‘panic buys’ that we were a part of,” says Mertesacker, who later captained the club. “Not making a joke of it, but it is a significant journey for me and my family, what happened on that deadline day and everything that happened after.”
While Mertesacker, 37, did not foresee their future as stewards of Arsenal, he and Arteta were signed in part for their leadership qualities and the pair quickly hit it off in their initial weeks at the club, not least because the German struggled to adapt to driving on the left.
“Mikel took me from the Grove Hotel to the training ground for the first three or four weeks, so clearly from the start of it we had a certain bond which then ended up being captain and vice-captain,” he says. “Did I imagine being in that position? No, but if you are really responsible and want to do well for the club I guess you put yourself in a position where you might end up where we are sitting right now.”
A close relationship between the pair is especially beneficial given how Arteta has sought to build his squad around young players, some of whom have been developed at Arsenal’s academy, which is the subject of new mini docu-series Inside Hale End. England winger Bukayo Saka is the poster boy but Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah have also graduated to the current senior side with distinction.
“I couldn’t be more pleased how aligned we are in terms of the first team and the academy, and the success rubs off each other,” adds Mertesacker. “I’m in a super happy place right now.”
Mertesacker’s goal is to make Arsenal’s academy “world-leading” and develop more like Saka good enough to play in the Champions League if, as the club hopes, they return to Europe’s top competition soon. More broadly, he hopes to produce players with the technical capacity and mental fortitude to forge a career somewhere in the game, even if it is not in north London.
“How close are we? I’m not sure,” he says. “We’re competing with the best academies in England but also in Europe and the world. I think we’re in a good position, but ready to do more.”
That process is showcased in Inside Hale End, a six-part series set to premiere on Arsenal’s YouTube channel today. Unlike Amazon’s recent All Or Nothing shows that focused on the highs and lows of Arteta’s side last season, it is made by the club and centres on the under-15 and under-16 teams as young hopefuls strive for a scholarship and, ultimately, a professional contract.
Mertesacker insists the series is not intended to woo sought-after prodigies to Hale End so much as show how Arsenal, and football clubs in general, operate at a time of heightened scrutiny of the effects of the system on young players’ welfare.
“It’s not so much a recruitment tool. Obviously it will show what we’re about, so ultimately people might think: ‘I like that, I want to have the same’,” he says. “We want to show what we’re about, that there is total transparency in what we do and why we do it. How much we really care for these boys to rise to any challenge in life.”
Mertesacker is not keen to single out any budding talents in Arsenal’s academy, reasoning that he benefited from starting his career under the radar at Hannover and then Werder Bremen. More than a decade ago it brought him to London. He has barely looked back.
“Eleven years sounds crazy but it’s a good time to reflect for me what has been achieved in seven years as a player and four years as academy manager,” he says. “I never stopped being hungry to make this place a better one.”
Inside Hale End premieres on 6th September via Arsenal’s YouTube channel, with two new episodes airing weekly every Tuesday, concluding on the 20th September. For more information on Inside Hale End and the Arsenal youth academy, please visit www.arsenal.com