Why Per Mertesacker is leaving Arsenal and what it means for the academy’s future

For Mikel Arteta, it will be difficult to imagine life at Arsenal without Per Mertesacker.

The pair began their club journey together in the summer of 2011. It was at a hotel in Dortmund, Germany, that they both performed their debut songs – Arteta giving his rendition of the Macarena, before Mertesacker launched into DJ Otzi’s Hey Baby, holding a bun in place of a microphone.

In the seasons that followed, they reshaped Arsenal’s dressing room culture and helped the club end a nine-year wait for silverware in the 2013-14 FA Cup. After retiring as players, Mertesacker and Arteta were recruited to manage the academy and first team respectively.

Now, after almost 15 years with Arsenal – the last eight as academy director – Mertesacker announced his intention to step down at the end of this season.

“We were teammates, we were friends, we were captains together, and then we shared this incredible project together in a different role – him as academy director and me as manager,” Arteta told a press conference on Tuesday. “I enjoyed every minute of it.

“He is someone who transmits in the best way the values ​​of this football club, its ambition and everything related to it.

“We are very grateful.”

The news of Mertesacker’s decision to resign was not entirely surprising to Arsenal insiders. There has been a feeling in recent months that a change might be in sight. For this article, Athletics spoke to sources close to the situation, who remain anonymous to protect relationships.

To some extent, Mertesacker’s departure is just part of the natural churn of any football club. Eight years in one role is quite a stint – 15 years at one club, taking into account the last seven seasons of his playing career, a remarkable achievement in modern football.

Having started his days having played in such a senior position, there was no obvious path for the German to progress at Arsenal either.

Last year, he was not considered as a candidate for the sporting director or technical director positions, which went to Andrea Berta and James Ellis respectively. The implementation of a technical director model also changed the club’s hierarchical structure in a way that impacted Mertesacker.

For their part, Arsenal are also considering injecting new ideas into the academy management.

In the age of financial regulation, the need for a high-performing academy is greater than ever.

Their previous sporting director, Edu, recognized the importance of the academy and was considering potential ways to raise its standards before his sudden departure in November 2024. Since his departure, Arsenal have carried out a more in-depth review of the academy’s operations, which identified potential areas for improvement. Mertesacker had a good salary, which limited Arsenal’s ability to bring in additional expertise.

The 41-year-old’s decision to step down is therefore timely: it offers Arsenal an opportunity to evolve. The club is grateful for Mertesacker’s work and recognizes that he will be difficult to follow. They will take their time to identify a suitable replacement.

He will leave behind him an academy shaped around his values.

It was Ivan Gazidis, chief executive from 2009 to 2018, who initially appointed Mertesacker, encouraged by then-first-team manager Arsene Wenger and a certain influential teammate. When Arteta retired at the end of the 2015-16 season, he urged Arsenal bosses to retain Mertesacker in some capacity, recognizing the value the 2014 World Cup winner could continue to provide into his 30s.

Mertesacker pictured with Wenger in 2018 (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Mertesacker was partly appointed, after his retirement two years later, to provide the academy with a figurehead – a famous former player whose profile would help persuade youngsters that Arsenal was the club for them and charm their families.

But it was much more than just an ambassadorial role: Mertesacker had to learn on the job and master all aspects of academy management. He was thrown in at the deep end – but this 198cm (6ft 6in) international cap centurion was more than capable of handling that. He threw himself into everything: As well as his academy duties, Mertesacker also had a brief stint as a first-team assistant coach during Freddie Ljungberg’s tenure as caretaker manager before Arteta’s appointment in December 2019.

An assessment of Mertesacker’s management of Arsenal’s academy highlights a crucial question: what is an academy for?

If the answer is “producing first-team talent”, then his tenure must be considered an unqualified success. The first team can now call on boldly talented academy graduates such as Bukayo Saka, Ethan Nwaneri, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Max Dowman and Marli Salmon. These players are the pride of the Hale End operation – and have arguably saved the club hundreds of millions in transfer fees.

But at a time when intense competition and financial rules force Arsenal to exploit every possible source of income, an academy must also generate tangible income. The sales of players such as Joe Willock, Folarin Balogun, Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah have attracted eye-catching fees, but there is still a feeling that Arsenal could do more in this area.

The club has looked enviously at the way Chelsea and Manchester City have turned their youth programs into a steady stream of money. This requires careful management of career paths, including arranging appropriate loan transfers. Arsenal will target this as an area where they can improve.

It also requires, to begin with, aggressive and ambitious recruitment of academic talent. At Arsenal, the first team has naturally been the focus of investment – ​​Mertesacker has not always had the funds to compete with rivals like Chelsea.

Lewis-Skelly, left, and Nwaneri are two of the recent academy graduates to join Arsenal’s first team (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

There is of course a third function of an academy: to provide young people with a foundation that prepares them well for the future – whether that be in the first team of the relevant club, elsewhere in the wider game or just in life in general.

It was here that Mertesacker’s influence was most felt.

He has led Arsenal’s efforts to create ‘Strong Young Gunners’ who excel on and off the pitch. He championed Arsenal’s core belief that better people make better players, emphasizing the key traits of respect, humility and discipline.

People like Saka embody these values. These players now in the first team will be the German’s legacy – just like the countless other players who come out into the world from Arsenal’s academy, carrying his message with them.

Having moved straight into an administrative role after retiring from the game, no one would blame Mertesacker for a break from the game. His days as a player saw him play with local club Hannover and Werder Bremen before coming to north London, meaning he is already a wealthy man.

Sources suggest, however, that he is keen to find a new position soon, with potential opportunities in Germany. Mertesacker has already been courted by the national football federation. After these 15 years spent in London, a return home may be in the offing.

Mertesacker’s departure will mean another former Arsenal player leaves the building to work elsewhere, relatively soon after the departures of Edu and Jack Wilshere. Arteta now stands alone as a former standout player in the organization. While none of these men were hired by Arsenal solely for their club association, this trend could be an indication of progress: the club has built a strong enough culture that it is now able to look forward rather than back.

The fact that Mertesacker stays until the end of the season shows how positive relations remain.

Beyond his professional achievements, it is his human qualities that we will miss the most. He remains a consistently affable, thoughtful and dignified presence at the grassroots of the London Colney club.

Good people make better players. It turns out they also make good academy directors.