[The Athletic] At a dinner with his players, Mikel Arteta secretly hired a team of pickpockets. At the end of the meal, Arteta stood up and asked his players to empty their pockets. A number of players were missing valuable items. It was to teach his squad the importance of being alert at all times.

46 comments

1. This gonna end up at the circle jerk sub isn’t it

2. If this is true….what a fucking idiot…..

3. This is really cringe. Arteta is the type of guy who writes his own motivational quotes and frames them to hang around his house. He obviously also gifts framed quotes to friends and family every year.

4. I’m hoping this was a bit of fun…. Because if he was serious……

5. This has a real Brendan Rodgers and his fucking envelopes feel to it.

6. Wtf

7. Borderline retarded if true. The last thing I’m wanting to worry about is looking over my shoulder every minute when I’m supposed to be relaxing or having a good time

8. Has anyone ever seen Arteta and Alan Partridge in the same room?

9. Does Lego Head also have a massive portrait of himself at home?

10. And that’s why you always leave a note

11. I hope that this is true. Shit like that is how you lose a team

12. Lmao very peculiar. Dudes a weirdo

13. I’d secretly hire a team of chavs to kick his arse and teach him the importance of not being a cunt.

14. Michael Scott approves this.

15. Chat GPT ideas

16. Dude thinks he’s Master Roshi

17. “And THIS is how city stole our title, right out of our own pockets”

18. Such a fucking weirdo

19. dwight schrute ahh managing

20. How do you hire a team of pickpockets? And what would he have done if 20+ elite level athletes suddenly set about someone they thought was trying to nab a Rolex? How do you pickpocket a bunch of people who are eating dinner?

    My bullshit detector says that anyone who had stuff go missing was in on it. As dumb as it was.

21. This kind of management is interesting because I guess it’s very divisive. If someone did this to me I just don’t see how it would make me better at football and I would just think my manager was a bit of a sausage.

22. Did they give them back?

23. Did he present three envelopes?

24. I see he is getting them ready for the feeling when City steals their title again this year ..

25. This is giving me arrested development gene parmesan vibes

26. So cringe

27. https://x.com/Romme1andre/status/1821476243914596477?t=lROgojfyXi0UOkxaqJx3Lw&s=19

28. This is so corny.

29. Someone on twitter said this was the players at the end of the dinner

    https://x.com/Romme1andre/status/1821476243914596477

30. CONSTANT VIGILANCE

31. That’s pretty hard to believe.

32. This is literally a scene in Brooklyn Nine Nine lmfao

33. Why doesn’t he just get them to do a bunch of drugs and pay off the refs like the Champions do?

34. Brendan Rodger’s regen.

35. I’m certain they all still had their bottles

36. That just sounds fucking annoying. Bothering people as they eat is the worst.

37. This reminds me of Co Adriaanse the old coach of AZ in holland back in the days

    He let his players search for an easter egg for four hours straight after a training section

    It turned out that there weren’t any eggs at all, he told them it was just for the team building purpose 😂😂😂

    They had a Brazilian striker named Ari, he was so pissed off he went straight to the airport and flew to Brazil 😭

38. You’ll never walk alone was playing in the background – true story.

39. “…but at least I am so handsome.”

40. He’s so fucking lame if he didn’t have a great team that gives him whatever he wants this shit would not fly.

    Edit: Since you pricks aren’t very smart and resort to reactionary comments, this statement says if his team wasn’t good then people would judge him for this. This behavior doesn’t positively affect his team. People tend to make excuses and give people a pass just because they’re good at their jobs. However, this is not part of his job.

41. Well that’s one way to raise revenue to meet FPR

42. David Brent vibes.

43. Weirdo

44. What a corn ball.

    He wants to be talked about like Pep does, and it’s failing miserably. The light bulb was also cringe-overload

45. This is the kind of thing I’d expect somebody to write on LinkedIn 

46. Lmao, and I bet he had an envelope with someone’s name in it as well