And so, after an unrelenting run into winter, Mikel Arteta can relax at last. With Arsenal top of the tree, it is time to read, reflect and, perhaps, raise a glass to those helping hands at ‘Alcoholics Anonymous’.
That is how England boss Eddie Jones playfully described his meetings with an international coaching group, where some of sport’s sharpest minds swap secrets. Over recent months, Jones has been chatting with Arteta, Mike Dunlap of the Milwaukee Bucks, basketball Hall Of Famer George Karl and Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur.
It is a curious crosspollination of sports and generations, a forum to share problems and find solutions. Among the early talking points? How much information would ever leave their Zoom calls.
Many details remain hidden but Dunlap recently allowed Sportsmail a peak behind the curtain, revealing what makes Arteta and Jones tick. And what makes them special. What makes ‘Coach Jones’ a ‘one per cent-er’ and what convinced him that Arteta has the ‘it factor’.
The answers lie somewhere between the supermarket, dinner with Michael Jordan, and a night at the symphony. They involve Anthony Bourdain, stand-up comedy, and the books of Maya Angelou. ‘I guess what is stunning about both Eddie and Mikel is their intelligence and their ideas,’ Dunlap begins.
Mikel Arteta has met and talked with several of the world’s brightest coaches in recent times
‘They have a boundless van of ideas about sport, people and human nature and competitive spirit.’
Both Jones and Arteta have a history of looking elsewhere for inspiration, too.
During lockdown, the Arsenal manager struck up a relationship with LA Rams coach Sean McVay. Last autumn, he joined England’s camp under Jones, who exposes his players to insight from football, hockey, cycling. And now America.
‘When I looked at the group and who was involved I was extremely surprised (to be invited),’ Arteta said. ‘These are people with so much experience, knowledge and different backgrounds. But it’s fascinating… really challenging, and inspiring.’ Enlightening, too. Even if it isn’t immediately obvious what Arsenal can possibly learn from rugby or basketball.
‘There are movements, patterns, things within the culture of a rugby team (or) a national team… the way they used to coach 20 years ago and how they coach today,’ Arteta explained ‘How they learn from experiences, how they learn about defeat, about coaching style, how to build that connection between departments, between your coaches.
Chief among those common threads?
Arteta has struck up a relationship with England rugby head coach Eddie Jones and last autumn the Spaniard joined England’s training camp
Mike Dunlap of the Milwaukee Bucks gave Sportsmail an insight, revealing what makes Arteta and Jones tick and why they are special coaches
‘Losing,’ Dunlap explains. ‘When we’re brainstorming and Matt LaFleur is talking about, say, losing to the (New York) Jets and we’re sharing ideas… Mikel’s and Eddie’s and Coach Karl’s are fresh and very bright.’ Sometimes, the ‘silver bullet’ is obvious: ‘Your defence sucked.’
Often, though, the lines separating defeat from victory are too fine for easy answers.
‘Eddie and Mikel like to think outside the box,’ Dunlap, 65, says. ‘If I went to the grocery store and there wasn’t, say, sugar on the shelf then both would be very adept at saying: “Well, go to the next aisle and grab the honey”.’
Arteta has found that studying other sports can, in fact, be more useful than seeking advice from within football. Why?
‘They are very willing to share everything they do, because it’s not a competition,’ he said.
And, though training and tactics may vary, there are ties that bind all coaches.
‘The one thing that’s not different is human nature,’ Dunlap says. And both Arteta and Jones have mastered one crucial skill of man-management: juggling different characters with different trigger points. ‘To touch that nerve without harming the chemistry of the team,’ Dunlap explains. ‘If they were both symphony conductors, they would be premier in understanding how to work that orchestra.’
He continues: ‘Mikel, for example, knows how to put teams together and link the individual to the ‘we’.’ Meaning? ‘Here’s the benefit for you… and this is how we’re going to benefit as a team.’ Sometimes with superstars that’s really hard to do – they’re superstars because they’re fixated on themselves.’
Hence why modern coaches must moonlight in psychology. ‘Both Mikel and Eddie understand the elite athlete and what drives them.’
But both are also notoriously intense. These calls can’t be much fun?
American coaches Matt LeFleur (L) and George Karl (R) have also swapped secrets with Arteta
‘We laugh a lot!’ the Bucks coach insists. ‘Some of it is just the frustration of taking human beings out of their comfort zone and getting them to do extraordinary things. Because essentially that is what a coach does.’
Jones always keeps conversations interesting. ‘I liken Coach Jones to Anthony Bourdain,’ Dunlap says. ‘He has a healthy irreverence to stock thought, that standard way of saying things.’
Arteta (40) and LaFleur (42) are at the other end of their journeys. ‘Young guns’ as Dunlap put it. ‘Special leaders.’
The Arsenal boss still abounds with questions and ‘ideas about how to motivate his team.’
Light bulbs, drawings, open heart surgery – Arteta has used them all to stir emotions. ‘He understands how young players communicate,’ Jones said. ‘He showed them the duck and the rabbit (an optical illusion, to prove the importance of unity). ‘An old picture but it reinforces how important imagery is for young people to learn.’
Arteta shared some ideas with the group. ‘In another lifetime I tried to do exactly the same things,’ Dunlap says.
‘Whether it’s reading the New Yorker, The Atlantic, Malcolm Gladwell… Maya Angelou or whatever, my point is that you’re drawing down on ideas and then bring those in layman’s terms.’ The point? ‘With Generation Z… the medium has to be the message.’
Arteta’s coaching has received rave reviews this season as he continues to transform Arsenal
The 65-year-old adds: ‘The great thing about a light bulb or a tree or whatever he may be doing is that he can be a month down the road and circle back to it – like a great comedian does…. these guys will put something out there in the first five minutes and then 20 minutes later they’ll loop right back to it.’
Arteta has asked peers to study his approach and offer feedback.
‘He has what I call the ‘it’ factor… he’s highly competitive and highly intelligent,’ Dunlap says. ‘Put all those things together, that’s why he’s successful.’
Among the hallmarks of his current Arsenal team? Fast starts. It’s a habit Jones is keen to nab.
Dunlap believes the foundations were laid on Arteta’s arrival in 2019, when he began a ruthless overhaul of the club.
‘Selling trust is what we all do and in order to sell trust, you have to be competent,’ he says. Otherwise, ‘players will eventually find you out.’
‘That’s the gateway to getting the performance and a fast start,’ he adds. ‘Very quickly, they had boiled down complicated lack of performance situations and said: ‘We’re going to alter this and you’re expected to hit that bell at a certain time. If you don’t, you’re going to ultimately be cut.’
Incredibly, Arteta wasn’t even born when the seeds of this group were sown. It was 1979, when Dunlap met Brian Goorjian. They later worked together with Australia’s basketball team, to whom Jones once gave a talk.
‘He’s a beautiful storyteller and that always stains the brain,’ Dunlap recalls. ‘He’s highly organised: A leads to B, leads to C when he addresses a topic. ‘The American was also struck by another trait: ‘Humility.’ Not always a label attached to the England boss. ‘You wouldn’t know if he was a stevedore or an elite coach… it’s so precious to meet somebody like that.’
It was Goorjian who alerted Dunlap to these symposiums. He is not the only one grateful for a chance to work with Jones.
‘His detail, his approach to everything, how he wants to gain advantages and get information off everybody, how meticulous he is, how competitive he is, it’s just incredible,’ Arteta said.
But one area that neither Jones nor Arteta has yet mined? Michael Jordan, Dunlap’s former boss at the then Charlotte Bobcats.
‘He’s willing to tell people what they don’t want to hear,’ Dunlap says. ‘(But) if you’re at the table and you’re eating with him… you’re going to enjoy that dinner. It’s not all just a hammer to the temple.’
Something to explore for Jones, perhaps, as he begins his own Last Dance with England. For now, though, the Australian has been trialling more peculiarity as England prepare for the All Blacks. His latest brainchild? Mime training. It’s one Jones has borrowed from the NBA. From Dunlap? ‘No, I don’t have a good idea in me,’ he says. ‘I just like being in their wake and listening to them… you’re on to very special humans.’
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