Arsenal: Per Mertesacker a testament to values of club

This week, Per Mertesacker discussed how he viewed success in his role as Arsenal Academy manager. His answer is a testament to the values Arsene Wenger instilled.

As the Arsene Wenger era drew to an end, there were few that from a purely footballing perspective believed that he was the best manager to lead Arsenal forwards. Those that still supported his position as manager, like myself, were those that saw him through rose-tinted glasses and were concerned with the direction of the values and philosophies should Wenger depart.

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How would the heart and soul of Arsenal football club change if Wenger, the master and great author of the modern era, were to leave? That was the dreaded question that the most fierce of Wenger supporters feared.

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However, almost a year after Wenger’s departure, it is fair to say that the new management of the club has maintained many of the principles that Wenger was so unwaveringly and so brilliantly committed to. Listen to Per Mertesacker, the new Head of Academy, describe what success would be for him and his young players in a recent interview with Goal:

"“If we can have a doctor in America, that is a success for us as an academy too. That’s how I see it. If we get someone who doesn’t make it in football and has a successful career somewhere else in the world, that’s also a success. I wouldn’t measure it like that [only on who we bring though]. Obviously, everyone looks at whether we bring young footballers into the first team, that’s one of the goals. But I wouldn’t discard someone who is successful in life, that’s big. The hall of fame in the academy should be a wide variety of stories.”"

That is an extremely Wengerian answer.

Now, Mertesacker admittedly played under Wenger for seven years and was the club captain for a significant portion of them. He was often the extension of Wenger in the dressing room and on the pitch, the mouthpiece of the manager from the playing perspective. If there is anyone who is going to carry on the Wenger ideologies, it is Mertesacker.

But the same can be said for Unai Emery, Wenger’s replacement, also. Although there are still some questions about his coaching ability, in his first season as head coach, Emery has proven himself to be an extremely likeable, respectful, self-aware, intelligent, conscious individual, all characteristics that you could also attribute to Wenger himself.

There are differences, obviously. The passion on the sidelines. The intensity of the coaching. The raw, untamed, emotional responses. These are not Wenger. But his character, his poise, his nuance and understanding of players as people and not just commodities are all extremely comparable to Wenger and all help to preserve many of the brilliant value of the football club.

The best thing that Wenger did for Arsenal was to differentiate the whole organisation from many other, more gutter-drudging clubs. There is a moral code to the club that does not necessarily apply to all others. That was the Wenger legacy. And in Mertesacker and Emery, I am glad to report that it is still alive and well.