Former Scotland national team footballer, Steve Nicol fumed out at Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta after news went viral about the bizarre off-field strategy the Gunners coach took to teach his players.
Premier League giants Arsenal are going bold ever since they appointed Mikel Arteta as their head coach in December 2019. The 42-year-old is having a win rate of over 59% in his first job as head coach and has already won the FA Community Shield twice and the FA Cup once. The Gunners finished runners-up in the past two domestic leagues, losing the title by a whisker to Manchester City.
The English giants have made two big money deals to make their defense the strongest. Riccardo Calafiori and David Raya have been traded in. The club also clinched the Emirates Cup yesterday, beating Lyon by two goals. But, these heroics have been overshadowed by the recent strategy implemented by Arteta on his players.
As per the Athletic, Mikel Arteta hired professional pick-pockets and made them steal his players’ valuable items during team dinner. After the dinner, he ordered his players to empty their pockets, and then his players found out their valuables were missing. The motive behind this move was to teach the players to stay alert and focused at all times.
While this incident left many amused, football pundit Steve Nicol didn’t seem to be impressed by the tactician. He told ESPN that this was “nonsense”. He further added that Arsenal must be playing well as they spent huge on their players.
He went on to lash out at the tactician even more. He claimed that the players were not listening to what Arteta was saying. He also added that the players must have thought that the move was “Stupid!”.