Per Mertesacker could be the most important man at Arsenal
Ever since Per Mertesacker was announced as the new Academy coach there has been nothing but positives vibes and today there is even more reason to believe that the former German legend was an inspired pick for the role.
Mertesacker has spent this week back in his homeland, not for a visit to family or a holiday, but rather to see how he can improve the Arsenal youth set up even more.
The 34-year-old has been visiting his former club Werder Bremen to check out their facilities and to see what sort of partnerships can be fostered.
“Werder Bremen has a very good youth system and with Thomas Schaaf (technical director) someone who brings in new structures,” BFG told BILD. “I talked to him and thought about what we can do together as far as players are concerned.”
When asked about the possibility of loaning players out to the German side, Mertesacker added. “Let’s see what happens. That was just an exchange of ideas.”
This shows a man that is preparing to learn from others, a man that is absolutely improving the already impressive Arsenal Academy, a man that wants to put in place the sort of set up that will be the envy of every other Premier League club.
Werder Bremen are not a lower division team, they are a top team, any of our youngsters that are loaned to them will have their prospects increased significantly, just look at what playing in the Bundesliga has done for Jadon Sancho, he is now being talked about as a £100 Million player.
We already have Emile Smith Rowe in Germany on loan at Leipzig and Reiss Nelson at Hoffenheim and with players like Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah and Folarin Balogun showing immense potential there is an absolute need to strike up a strategic partnership with a club prepared to give opportunities to our youngsters. If we get this right – and in Per Mertesacker we have a great chance of that happening then we could have a conveyor belt of high-quality talent coming through to the first team on a regular basis.
This makes Per one of the most important figures at the club, if not the most important, in the long term.
Martin