“He’s the best signing I’ve ever made”: Mikel Arteta says the player he signed this summer is the best he’s ever signed as he revealed how defender were unable to face him in training
In the second part of his pre-north London derby press conference, Mikel Arteta spoke about Raheem Sterling’s hunger to join Arsenal, Ethan Nwaneri’s development in the last 12 months and Gabriel Martinelli’s place in the squad.
Arteta on a huge week and the need to start with a big performance…
It certainly sets the tone in many moments in the season because when you play those big matches, big stages, there’s a lot at stake, it’s a very emotional game as well, when you’re able to perform and deliver and win those games, it’s a huge boost. We know that and that’s why we’re going to try so hard.
On knowing he wanted to sing Sterling within 10 seconds…
Because his first words to me were, “Please, I was dreaming of that call.” That’s it. That tells you he really wanted it, he was already thinking of that possibility and he could see himself here, delivering and enjoying his profession again. When that happens, the rest I knew about him so that took all the questions marks away.
On Guardiola crediting him with Sterling’s improvement at City and what they worked on…
This is the work of all the coaches and what we do, and the work of coaches here and how they try to improve every individual. At the end, Raheem did that because of his quality, he found as well the right environment because the way Pep put the team out there suited him in a way probably before it wasn’t that much. And then, he had an immense impact in the team and he was very successful.
On Sterling needing a structured environment to thrive…
Yeah, we’re going to try to give him everything that we believe is going to help him and empower him to get the best version of him. We will see daily how that looks.
On Sterling’s confidence levels after his spell at Chelsea…
That’s going to fluctuate in everybody’s career, obviously. Knowing him and how he is about always playing, always being present and being important, when you have that you start to go on a roll, for that to be changed, that hits you. We have to rebuild on that but we’ve got all the foundations and the right context fot him to get to the level that we want.
