Per Mertesacker admits Arsenal are only just beginning to recover from the damage caused by the club’s disastrous mistakes in the transfer market following Arsene Wenger’s departure.
Arsenal’s scattergun approach under the regime of former head of football, Raul Sanllehi, failed to yield results as the club dropped out of Champions League qualifying contention and European competition altogether following last season’s eighth placed finish.
It was Sanllehi who sanctioned a club-record deal for Nicolas Pepe, while other players signed under his watch, including the likes of David Luiz, Cedric Soares and Pablo Mari all failed to make an impact.
Former Chelsea star Willian also turned out to be an expensive mistake, while William Saliba, a £30million signing from Saint Etienne, is still yet to make his Arsenal first team debut nearly two-and-a-half years after signing.
Slowly, however, following a huge £160million outlay in the summer, Arsenal are showing signs of significant progress under Mikel Arteta with a young team, enhanced by the emergence of several talented players from the academy which Mertesacker now oversees.
The Gunners are currently in fourth place following a run of four straight wins and Mertesacker is confident Arsenal are now firmly on the right trajectory having fallen ‘flat on their faces’ under the previous regime.
He told Suddeutsche: ‘We are in a state of upheaval and are building a team capable of development, which should be peppered with players from our own youth and professionals from abroad.
‘In the meantime, we had lost our way. We tried to make the connection to the top faster with costly commitments. We fell on our face with that.
‘It is not easy to find successors who bring good ideas and who at the same time involve club employees.
‘Mikel has a different knit than Arsene, is intense and focused. He tries to be very active as a trainer, to respond to the new generation and to clearly show what is required.
‘The current generation needs more requirements, while in my time much more was regulated in dialogue with one another.’
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