Mikel Arteta to invite RAF fighter pilots to Arsenal for advice on communication | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta plans to call on RAF fighter pilots for advice on how to better communicate with his players.

The Spaniard has previously demonstrated he is not afraid to opt for left-field ideas in his management style, with the All or Nothing: Arsenal documentary series capturing some on camera, including producing a lit light bulb during a team talk to illustrate connection.

The Arsenal manager spoke at the Lead Better, Live Better Summit earlier this year, when he mentioned the possibility of taking inspiration from RAF fighter pilots, The Telegraph reported.

Asked by moderator and former Aussie Rules footballer Luke Darcy about where his curiosity takes him, Arteta responded: “To many places. It’s a constant improvement. I can wake up one day and say ‘my process on match day is not good enough. Why we are communicating to the players, starting from between us coaches to the analysts, to the other guys, to actually how the message is delivered. I don’t like it. Who is the best at that?’”

“So, the British fighter planes, for example. I will get in touch with those guys, how they communicate, because that is life or death. I’m sure they don’t use 20 phrases or 20 words if there is one word. Don’t say ‘nah, the wind is coming this way, now you have to turn left’, because boom, dead. So, it will be one word.”

“So what is it? How specific can we be? How clear can we be? And bring them [the pilots] in and say ‘I want you to analyse our process, three days, how we communicate, how we do that in training, how we do that and I want to get better at this’.

“And be vulnerable, you know, and get it smashed and say ‘you guys are terrible at this, you need to improve’ and so ‘OK, we are going to get better at this’. Getting to understand these people, how they think, how they operate, how this relates to Formula One, how this relates to something else and try to improve on that.”

Arteta’s comments were recorded for the podcast The Leadership Playbook, with basketball coach Steve Kerr also part of the conversation.

The pair are believed to be part of a WhatsApp group of international coaches across the sporting world, with former England rugby head coach Eddie Jones another to have inspired Arteta with his dogma of ‘starters’ and ‘finishers’.

Arteta cited the philosophy in Arsenal’s recent Champions League win over Athletic Bilbao, with both of their goals coming from substitutes.

“At the end the finishers made an impact to win the game,” he said. “The finishers are going to be more important this season than the starters.”

Asked whether he had taken inspiration from the concept in rugby union, he said: “I did and I love it because I don’t like any other words to describe players.”