Per Mertesacker interview: 'Players need to find a bus station, not a pampered ride home'

As he watches the club's Academy graduates shape Arsenal's future, the under age manager knows too well that for most starlets' the hopes are huge but their odds to succeed tiny.

Sat, 29 Nov, 2025 - 06:25

Nick Callow

On Sunday afternoon, as Arsenal face Chelsea in a London derby swollen with implications for the title race, Per Mertesacker will watch with a sense of deja vu. One of the last times these clubs collided on such a charged afternoon, he was on the pitch, unexpectedly leading Arsenal to the 2017 FA Cup, a performance so complete it became “The Mertesacker final.”

Eight years on, the 41-year-old is no longer the emergency centre-half but the architect of Arsenal’s future. As academy manager, he is the 6ft 6in guardian of its culture, shaping the next Bukayo Saka while knowing full well that 99 per cent of his players will never make a living in the game.

None of this seemed likely when, as a teenager recently released by his first club, he arrived at Hannover 96 mocked as “The Defence Pole” for his upright style.

“I got rejected as a youth player and it actually saved me,” he says. “There was no expectation. No one thought I’d be the next big thing. That protects you. Today the information flow is so quick. We try to warn our players. Only one per cent make it.”

His career turned on the frantic final day of the 2011 transfer window. Arsenal had just been humiliated 8–2 by Manchester United and Arsene Wenger plunged into the market, snapping up both Mertesacker and Mikel Arteta.

“A panic buy wasn’t it?” he jokes. “Maybe when you don’t have time to think, you make the best decision.” Arsenal had actually first sounded him out a year before. He was with the German national team when the crucial call finally came. Wenger spoke to him in German; “straight away, the aura came through.”

He accepted immediately. “I told my agent, don’t negotiate. I just want to be there.” Despite his experience, he struggled adapting at first. “Others would have replaced me for £30 or £40 million. But Arsene stood by me. He said, ‘You are intelligent enough to learn from your mistakes.’ I owe him for that.”

He and Arteta quickly became inseparable: roommates, car-share partners, captain and vice-captain, two late arrivals who became the group’s informal leaders. “He was all over the details, even testing the food for our team nights out. From the beginning we trusted each other.”

Wenger, ironically, tried to appoint Arteta as academy manager, but he had already committed to join Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. Arteta recommended Mertesacker instead.

“Arsene and Ivan Gazidis asked if I’d stay a year before I retired. My wife said she wanted to stay in London. Three weeks later, Arsene gave me the academy. A huge gamble.”

He laughs at his early innocence. “Playing football and the job I have now, they’re not the same. Suddenly you’re on 24/7 and responsible for young people’s futures.” What Wenger saw in him was the ability to challenge mentality and build resilience. “I think I was in a constant interview,” Mertesacker smiles. “He believed I could help young people resist challenges.”

Today, the challenge is immense. Arsenal’s academy houses nearly 200 players from Under-9 to Under-21, supported by around 100 staff. Talent is flowing from Saka, Emile Smith-Rowe, Reiss Nelson, to Ethan Nwaneri, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Max Dowman, but Mertesacker insists the priority is culture.

“It started when I scrapped taxi credits and put the money into education. Players need to find a bus station, not a pampered ride home. Ninety-nine per cent will find a different job. We will not prepare them to fail.”

He tells parents of Under-8s, bluntly, that less than one per cent will become professionals. “Then we explain what the programme really is: character, humility, self-belief, identity.”

Humility, he argues, is essential. He sees it most clearly in Saka. “When Bukayo sees academy staff in the canteen, he goes straight over. He knows how many people shaped him. That’s a true academy player.”

He wants not a conveyor belt but a community. “I don’t want everyone to be the same. I want them brave, free. Individual development within a team. What Myles did against Atlético Madrid in the Champions League when he ran through their team, he played just like that as an under-10. Ethan scored left, right and centre at nine years old just as he does now. If we can protect that joy, that’s the goal.”

His own most joyful Arsenal performance, of course, came in the 2017 FA Cup Final. After a season ruined by injury, he had made only one substitute appearance. Even at the pre-match press conference, he assumed he was attending as club captain, not as a starter.

“We had so many injuries. Koscielny was suspended. Even then I thought our coach Steve Bould would play ahead of me,” he grins. “And we played a back three for the first time in my life.”

Chelsea, champions under Antonio Conte, assumed the double was theirs. But for Mertesacker, things clicked. “I’d done this for 30 years. So I told myself, trust it. Do what you’ve always done.”

He won his early duels; the crowd sensed it; Arsenal grew. When Chelsea equalised, Arsenal responded instantly through Aaron Ramsey. “Calm, focus, belief,” he says. “You can only execute like that if you’re calm.” It remains an indelible memory. A great day. The fans could feel everything.”

Yet his grandest memory is Germany’s 2014 World Cup victory. Not only the trophy, but the decade-long strategy behind it. “Jurgen Klinsmann said in 2004: we need young players now. Before that, you had to be 27 or 28 to be trusted. But he threw in Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Podolski, me, Neuer. Others, like Ozil were added along the way. The 2006 home World Cup helped us grow and we stayed together for 10 years.”

Germany reached semi-finals in 2006 and 2010 and entered 2014 with equal measures of hope and pressure. “We were called a golden generation who won nothing. But you build, you keep going, you don’t get frustrated. Eventually you get over the line.”

He sees parallels at Arsenal: long-term plan, patient build, a core growing together. “There’s something going on,” he smiles again. “If you trust young players, if you build the culture, if you keep going, something happens.”

As he enters year eight in the job, Mertesacker feels he’s finally witnessed a full academy cycle. “Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly have been with us 10 years. That’s the cycle. You need to respect it to make real impact. I’ve been here since day one of Max Dowman’s time at the club.”

He stresses staff recruitment almost more than player recruitment. “Culture fit first. Before expertise. Are you right for the environment? Jack Wilshere, I saw him every day as a player. Now, as a coach, he understands the club and has grown too and a manager in how own right at Luton.”

The relationship with the first team is crucial. “It’s different now. When I came through at Hannover, seniors saw us as competition. Now, at Arsenal, they welcome young players. Anyone who can win a duel is welcome.” It creates an ecosystem of opportunity and responsibility. “We won’t rush because of the industry. We do things the Arsenal way. Invest in youth. Protect identity. Homegrown players who carry the club.”

As Arsenal prepare to face Chelsea again, memories of 2017 flicker. Mertesacker watches academy players wander through the training ground, their hopes huge, their odds tiny.

“This job,” he says, “is about making them robust enough for whatever comes, football or not. Humble, confident, grounded. That’s the Arsenal way. And that’s what I’m here to protect.”