Arteta discurses the influence Pochettino has had on his professional career

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Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta discurses the influence Pochettino has had on his professional career from being taken under his wing in his early football career in Paris to his guidance when he started as a manager.   Sobha Realty Training Centre, London, UK

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00:00 How important is it to apply that pressure?

00:06 That helps. I think that helps because at the end you're winning your matches and you

00:12 bring in the margins smaller and smaller. That's the only thing we can do at the moment

00:16 because it's still not in our hands. We'll try to do tomorrow night, perform really well,

00:22 try to win the game and if we do that, the pressure will increase for sure.

00:26 Does that matter?

00:34 We don't know but it really matters because that means you're doing your job and that's

00:37 what matters the most. Obviously winning and as a consequence to that, bringing the margins

00:43 shorter, I think that's something that is positive.

00:53 When you think of people who are quite influential at the start of your

00:56 coaching/managerial journey, is he one of those?

01:01 For sure. One of the most, I would say. I was 17, 18 years old in Paris. I was thrown in Paris

01:08 1st January I think with no experience in professional football. He doesn't like it but

01:15 for me he was like a father. He really took me under his arm, gave me incredible advice,

01:20 he really protected me, he inspired me and I learned so much in those two years with him

01:26 together. From there obviously we maintained the relationship and I knew he was going to be a coach.

01:33 I admire him a lot for what he's done in his career and he's always someone that I look to

01:39 because as I said, he was really impactful for me. Probably in the most important stage of my

01:46 professional career was the beginning and he was one that as a role model,

01:50 I could not pick anybody better than him.

01:53 Did you lean on him in the early stages of your coaching career?

01:58 When I had to stop and I had to make a decision, I asked him, I explained the situation and

02:07 he gave me some advice and he was needed.

02:11 Is it true that tiredness is mainly in the mind rather than the legs or the body?

02:24 There are a lot of studies that prove that you can change the context, you can manipulate

02:31 certain things, you can get something out of people that probably don't expect and there's

02:37 a lot around it. I don't think we're in a stage where we need that. I think you can see that the

02:42 team really wants it and it's so much at stake. I will try to be as fresh as possible but certainly

02:51 I think we can cope with that.

02:53 Are you able to give us any insight into the psychological things you'll look to do with

02:58 the players in these next few weeks and what you'd say and how you'd get them going?

03:03 Probably what I'm going to do is not defined yet. There will be a few things. We have excellent

03:09 professionals as well at the club that are constantly on top of that, much more than me.

03:15 So it's not something you can do in a day to change the outcome in the next three weeks.

03:18 It's something that you do daily. It's like I call it a drizzle. You go out there, you don't

03:25 wear the umbrella but you're constantly getting wet every single day and then before you know it,

03:30 you're soaking wet and you're ready because it's every single day as a habit what you do.

03:35 You spoke about constant evolution in the league and that's obviously true at Arsenal as well.

03:42 When you look ahead to next season, have you already thought and

03:45 nailed down and clarified what this team needs to go to the next level or even higher?

03:50 Have you got that planned out with Eddie?

03:52 We have a few ideas. We have to see how we finish first and what we are capable of doing and

03:59 then sit down again and review everything that we've done and see how we're going to

04:04 make another step or two steps forward because that's what this team, this club and our people

04:11 are demanding, to keep moving forward in a ruthless way because we are not satisfied with where we are.

04:23 You were captain of Arsenal and he was manager of Tottenham and you were able to maintain that

04:27 social relationship but obviously separating it from work. How has he shaped you as a manager

04:34 and even during that time when you were still a player? Just give us a bit more insight into

04:37 what that influence has really been.

04:39 The way he is, he doesn't need to do it. He doesn't need to talk to me about tactics. The best

04:49 influence he had on me is the way he approached his life, his profession, his family, who he was

04:57 as a figure in the dressing room and the passion and love he had for the game. That's for me the

05:03 most important thing that I learned from him. How difficult are you finding that at the moment,

05:09 to switch off from football? It's really intense. Has that changed from last season? Have you

05:14 learnt at all or have you never found that a problem just to do something else not related

05:18 to football?

05:19 Completely off. I don't know in our profession. I think you have to tweak a little bit things and

05:25 bring the noise down sometimes and be more relaxed. Change the context, change the environment.

05:31 It's something really good. Change the people that you have around you.

05:33 We try to do that in the best possible way.

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