Arsenal are light years away from where they used to be when Mikel Arteta first took the reins at the Emirates Stadium.
The Spaniard inherited an Arsenal side that hadn’t been in the Champions League for a number of years and were 10th in the table.
Over the coming years, Arteta built Arsenal up to their current level, challenging for the Premier League title and reaching the Champions League knockout stages.
Arteta is known for having very high standards in the dressing room, as shown by how he froze out and offloaded a number of big players over the years.
Plenty of players have also spoken of the lengths Arteta will go to when it comes to man-management.
Now, Riccardo Calafiori has given his thoughts on Arteta, sharing what the Arsenal manager did to him that he had never experienced before.
Mikel Arteta sent Riccardo Calafiori pictures of his family and asked him what they meant to him
Calafiori is currently on international duty with Italy and he spoke to his country’s press ahead of their World Cup qualifiers.
He told Rivista Undici e Cronache what has stood out for him at Arsenal so far, namely how organised everything is.
Calafiori also shared an anecdote where he received photos of his family on his phone, and Arteta asked him what they meant to him.
“The first thing that comes to mind is the organization,” Calafiori said, as per Il Napolista.
“How much they care about each player from every point of view, both on the pitch and especially off the pitch.
“As for Arteta, I was immediately impressed by how much he cared about getting to know me.
“One day on the phone he sent me some photos of my family and asked me to say what each member of the family meant to me.
“Nothing like this had ever happened to me before – I’m not saying that he convinced me with this alone but it certainly represented an important moment.”
Meanwhile, Arteta recently shared what has really surprised him about Calafiori in Arsenal training.
What other players have said about Mikel Arteta’s man-management skills
Former Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale told BBC Sport in 2022: “Arteta’s team talks are definitely different.
“I think he keeps it fresh because sometimes he is writing, sometimes he talks, sometimes he lets some of the lads talk and what not.
“It keeps you engaged and lets you into his life as well… he is probably the most approachable manager I’ve had.”
Meanwhile, Theo Walcott said Arteta – when he was still playing – did something in the Arsenal dressing room that suggested he had what it takes to be a manager.
“The turning point for me in terms of how I viewed Mikel Arteta was an experience I had with him as a player at Arsenal,” said Walcott.
“It was at a time when we weren’t making the top four. We had training in 30 minutes and he locked all the players in the dressing room as if he was the manager.
“He was taking control of the whole space and telling us how it is. In that moment it was like he was the manager, and that was the turning point for me. That’s when I thought he could go on to be a manager.
“Arsene Wenger was waiting for us to come outside for training but we weren’t coming out because Mikel stopped the training session. He was such a strong character that even Arsene was afraid of him.”
