Words matter. These are the best Per Mertesacker Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
The amount of staff we have in academies is… I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s good to take care of the players but sometimes I get confused by the number of people who have an impact on one kid – we’re talking 100 people or more. It’s quite a heavy load.
I invested a lot in my fitness.
You know what you have achieved and what you have been through.
For almost 15 years, professional football is about yourself: How can I improve? How can I make myself better? Before winning a game was the short-term reward that meant everything. Now, I can look at the bigger picture.
Football has taught me so much.
When I was young and visited England with my auntie, as somebody who was football crazy, I simply had to come back with a shirt. I can’t remember why, but I came back with an Arsenal shirt and my brother had a Manchester United one.
We cannot take responsibility for every goal we concede, we all need to do our part across the field to ensure we win as a team.
There’s always that mental battle, who’s going to have that confidence to be on the front foot.
I want to make an impact on young people’s lives and be part of their future no matter what they do because I have seen that all the very talented players at 15, 16 still had very little chance to be successful in football.
I think it is so beneficial to English and British football when youngsters see different cultures and environments.
Mentality is a big part of every game, when you take the initiative and when you drop.
I want players to think: ‘OK, this has happened now, what is next for me?’ That’s a very big target because what are academies about nowadays? Is it really just to find one or two players? But what happened to the others? I’m very, very interested in that.
Arsenal is one of the top teams in Europe and I have been looking out for Arsenal since I got my first jersey when I was ten or 12.
When people are acutely depressed, many of them seem to want to hide.
The heritage of Arsenal, to believe in our academy and to really promote our academy. That’s important and that’s why I am here as well. I wouldn’t waste my time just to know that we are not having successes here at Arsenal.
First and foremost, Wenger saw us as human beings and he had a lot of faith in us, which is why he stood by us.
Sometimes you need a humbling experience to think about a few things.
At Arsenal you are replaceable so quickly as a player, I don’t want to stand in someone’s way.
My home town called me a citizen of honour. So I’m a special citizen now.
I was fortunate to play under Thomas Schaaf at Bremen. And I played for Arsene Wenger. So I always felt, let’s say, more responsible than others towards the manager and his succession.
I don’t see myself coaching because the intensity of that is massive, and the intensity as a manager, for example Arsene Wenger, is even more.
No matter how much striking power you have got, you need to have a sense of defensive compactness from everyone.
Every footballer has his ups and downs.
Goals often come from a mistake much further up the field, yet the analysis and blame will always be on the defence.
Things can change very fast in football.
There are not a lot of German players out there who are successful in a foreign country.
You spend some time with kids, you always take something with you.
Youngsters need self-esteem, simple targets in life which give energy. In the academy they can be so easily distracted by so many other things it’s amazing.
There are so many people around young kids nowadays it can make it very tough and difficult – people who think they are going to care for those kids but do the opposite.
It’s hard work to do important games for the club every three or four days, that is very physical.
I had a totally different upbringing, totally different background, raised in Germany, small town, now I am in London taking care of 180 kids who think they are the one percent who can make it in professional football.
I wasn’t that good at football aged 14 or 15. I didn’t take it too seriously.
Of course I have an advantage with my size on set pieces.
Some days you realise that everything is a burden, both physically and mentally. That it’s not about fun, but you have to deliver without a doubt. Even if you are injured.
You always have to remain professional. I have always done so.
Even at the age of 33 I was one of the most flexible at Arsenal when it came to my back muscles.
If you just protect and you have no chances on the break and you miss one chance to kill the game, then it’s difficult in the Premier League to win any game.
If there is a really good player at U16 level who disrespects the coach, if you then say: ‘You can go somewhere else then. That is not how we do things here.’ That would be powerful.
I want to show on the training pitch that I am ready whenever the manager needs me.
Being in a career and going from highlight to highlight and playing a lot of matches you go through it and think it’s normal when you play in front of 60,000 and you almost want to vomit in front of every game.
Arsene Wenger is a coach who has a very special personality. He has an experience that not many coaches have, and all at one club, at Arsenal.
Arsene Wenger was always the kind of manager whose belief in his team’s qualities was steady as a rock and who approached matters with never-ending patience.
Talent is what you make of your situation.
I’ve never had that dream in my head: ‘I want to play Bundesliga or Premier League.’ I was a fan, but it was never the dream that one day I was going to make it, because a lot of people had told me already that I wouldn’t.
Playing at the highest level really is something special for me.
Moving abroad brings you on both as a player and a person.
Moving to London enables me to fulfil a dream and a further step in my career. The Premier League has always represented a great challenge for me.
If Messi has the ball, he is fantastic to watch and difficult to stop. You have to double up on him, triple up on him even, stay with him constantly to block his way to the goal.
Mesut and I played together at Werder Bremen and Arsenal for so many years. There is no other player that I shared so much time with. We were important for each other.
Wenger has won three Premier League titles, which is proof enough of his standing as a manager.