Mikel Arteta reportedly ‘hired a team of professional pickpockets’ at an Arsenal dinner to teach his players a lesson.
Arteta has led the Gunners to consecutive second-placed finishes in the Premier League and has earned rave reviews for changing the fortunes of the club in his four-and-a-half years at the club.
He’s an odd bloke though, as became pretty clear in the ‘All or Nothing’ documentary that followed him and his team in the 2021/2022 campaign, and now The Athletic has provided further detail of his eccentricity in a piece titled ‘How Mikel Arteta rebuilt Arsenal in his own image’.
It includes explanations of how he’s changed the culture at the club, how he interacts with the players and coaches, his relationship with sporting director Edu and how that’s been key to their success in the transfer market.
But it begins with the revelation that Arteta hired someone to steal from his own players to teach them a lesson about ‘the importance of being ready and alert’.
‘At a dinner with his players, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta secretly hired a team of professional pickpockets. The sleight-of-hand artists were tasked with going round the tables, pinching phones and wallets from an unwitting first-team squad.
‘At the end of the meal, Arteta stood up and asked them the team to empty their pockets. A number of players were missing valuable items. The idea was to teach his squad the importance of being ready, alert and prepared — at all times.
‘This kind of innovative thinking is typical of Arteta, who sees every occasion an opportunity for learning and development. His influence is evident across every dimension of Arsenal. They have become a team built to his specifications, and a club moulded around his competitive spirit. His obsession with improvement has been infectious. It’s a mentality that has proliferated throughout the club.’
An odd method of teaching them to be prepared, not least because the threat of being robbed is a very real one for a footballer.
Particularly odd given almost exactly three years ago centre-back Gabriel fought off thieves trying to steal his car from his garage.
Gabriel was followed home and lunged at with a baseball bat by the assailant before hitting back and forcing the attacker to run away.
At the time Arteta said: “Obviously, it’s not a nice thing to go through when you have family involved and they’re trying to access your own house. Gaby showed a lot of character, you see the reaction that he had straight away.”
The Brazilian probably didn’t expect to experience PTSD over a lovely bit of chicken with his teammates.
