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When The Athletic revealed last month that Mikel Arteta hired professional pickpockets to pinch valuables from his Arsenal gamers at a staff dinner final season, there have been loads of folks wishing they’d been within the room to witness the response.

Kevin Balvers, the membership’s head of methodology for 3 years earlier than transferring to present Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven this summer time, may do one higher than that.

“I used to be within the management room of the digicam system,” Balvers laughs.

“It was earlier than the Liverpool sport (Arsenal’s 3-1 residence win in February) and the message to the gamers was that you simply all the time must be ready for them to trick you into one thing with out figuring out, as their mentality is to win.

“Afterwards, we had a gathering with the gamers and Mikel mentioned, ‘Is somebody lacking a telephone?’, then pulled it out of a giant bag. Then it was, ‘Is somebody lacking a resort key?’.

“The coaches all knew as we had employed them however even one of many employees had one thing stolen. We confirmed them the cameras, with the message that that is precisely what Liverpool are going to do. It helped align the gamers with the best way the coach was considering.”

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That is what Balvers describes as an ‘activation’, a pre-match mind sport with a deeper psychological message behind it. It’s the sort of outside-of-the-box considering from Arteta that he shortly grew to become used to after becoming a member of his employees in 2021.

They’d solely occur on events when it was determined the squad wanted one thing further to focus their minds, however they had been extra widespread earlier than early kick-offs, with Arteta’s personal model of Pictionary being a favorite.

“Once we performed towards a staff who counter-attacked and there have been open areas, he would say to the gamers, ‘The freeway is open’, which was an image of an F1 automotive with out another vehicles round them,” says Balvers. “If we had been taking part in towards a staff with nearer organisation, it was an F1 automotive however actually crowded. The gamers would then bear in mind extra shortly the issues we had been speaking about.

“That is Mikel. When he speaks with folks from a special world, he’s making an attempt to consider how he can translate it into soccer — even with a pilot.

“We had a presentation the place he was talking about them not having management of the airplane each single minute as a result of some issues had been automated and so they simply needed to alter. We had a presentation with a airplane going up once you face a excessive press and one other taking place when you must management the sport. It was to say that you could be want to vary ways in-game.”

His path to Arsenal was paved by Arteta’s assistant Albert Stuivenberg. They first met when Balvers had been making an attempt to develop his information base at Dutch membership Vitesse Arnhem and had reached out to dozens of coaches from the Netherlands to know their manner of taking part in.

They spoke for 2 hours as Balvers helped Stuivenberg articulate his sport mannequin and philosophy, which led to him being advisable to Arteta in 2020.

“I used to be out of contract sitting at residence (after leaving Vitesse) so I provided to assist Albert with something totally free,” says Balvers. “He requested me to assist with the evaluation of the opposition however I used to be working with Carlos Cuesta and Miguel Molina on it, who had not joined but both.

“They noticed my work there however Arsenal had been combating Covid, so these two may be a part of then, however Arteta may solely get extra employees members later.”

Balvers was at Swedish membership Malmo in 2021 when he acquired a name from Arsenal sporting director Edu Gaspar asking him if he wish to interview for the job as head of methodology. A video name with Arteta and Stuivenberg was adopted by an anxious wait as there have been two different candidates. Arteta careworn the one with the most effective “connection” can be chosen.

Balvers throughout his time at Vitesse (Photograph: Paul Meima/Professional Photographs/Isosport)

However after an eclectic decade with the Cyprus FA, the Netherlands’ youth groups, Caribbean nation Curacao, Vitesse, Barcelona’s La Masia academy and Malmo’s first staff, Balvers secured the position in north London.

He was tasked with making a uniform footballing concept that ran by way of the boys’s staff, the ladies’s aspect, and all the best way to the youngest academy age group. He didn’t, nevertheless, envisage simply how wide-ranging his position would turn into.

“It wasn’t solely his (Arteta) concepts on the pitch, it was the re-culturing of the coaching floor and the membership in each manner,” says Balvers.

“If he mentioned the portray in the bathroom within the stadium must be modified, it was as a result of he had a imaginative and prescient. It’s a silly instance, however I helped him quite a bit with these types of issues.

“On the coaching floor, all of the partitions had been white however Mikel wished them to create a tradition. I designed with him some phrases and photos to go up on the partitions.

Loads of thought goes into the messaging at Arsenal, whether or not on the Emirates Stadium or the coaching floor (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC by way of Getty Photographs)

“One in every of them was ‘BASICS’ — B for Bins, A for Assault, S for Form, I for Depth, C for Compete and S for Set items. It made it clear what we anticipated from them, and since he speaks that language each day, the gamers then communicate it.

“He had many particular phrases he used however one was ‘collaboretition’ — collaboration and competitors each day.”

Balvers shortly grew to become a soccer analyst, a graphics designer, a motivational filmmaker and an inside designer multi function, such was Arteta’s need to convey his vibrant analogies to life.

“It was all of the graphics and the motivational movies,” says Balvers. “There was a promo video the membership made for the Liverpool residence sport final season, however he wished a bit extra power to create a reference to the staff and the followers. He had a special thought, so he got here to me with it and the video you noticed was the brand new one.

“Once we went to away grounds, I made the banners with the crests of Arsenal and others with phrases from our sport mannequin that had been positioned across the altering room.

“When he was presenting to the board about his plan for the membership financially, we did some actually great things. We misplaced the primary 4 video games after I joined and I used to be considering, ‘I might be out already’, however the energy of Mikel was that he may translate his imaginative and prescient and concepts about the entire organisation, not simply the staff. I believe that’s why the board and homeowners believed in him.”

No stone was left unturned when it got here to making sure Arteta’s concepts grew to become ingrained within the gamers’ minds. They sought the recommendation of academic consultants to assist perceive the science behind how folks greatest be taught.

“We had folks from totally different golf equipment and totally different sports activities coming over to talk to the coaches, which is how we picked up issues,” Balvers says. “For displays, we had an American come and share strategies which lecturers use at college to convey throughout the message, find out how to get data into them and find out how to get data out of them.

“In tactical conferences, I realized from research that should you put a darkish blue background the gamers will be taught the knowledge greater than white, black or pink because the distinction is healthier. When talking about defending, we made certain the textual content and areas highlighted had been pink and when attacking it was blue. This helps their brains know immediately what section of play we’re speaking about.”

Much more thought went into the displays used to pitch the membership to potential new gamers.

“We spoke about how we noticed them becoming in on the pitch, exterior the pitch and had some photos of them photoshopped within the package already,” Balvers explains.

“For (Jurrien) Timber, we had some photos of his household with the message that we’re a giant household and deal with the whole lot. As I’m Dutch too, I put in some music from artists he was listening to, slightly than English music. Win the dog was within the one for Kai (Havertz), as we knew he cherished canines and we defined we wished a household feeling.

“That summer time, we used an animation of a prepare. Mikel was saying, ‘We now have our course and we all know the place we need to go. If you wish to preserve going then leap in’. Loads of them mentioned it was wonderful as they felt just like the membership actually wished them within the staff.

“Every little thing that was in Mikel’s thoughts, I used to be visualising and making an attempt to make fascinating however straightforward for the gamers to know. It was actually enjoyable for me as I might be artistic when he got here to me with an thought and I had to consider how we may current it in one of the simplest ways. It was the right job for me.”

Having spent three seasons at Arsenal, it was a wrench for Balvers to depart. However with a spouse and two youngsters, aged three and 5, the lure of going residence to his household within the Netherlands proved too robust.

There have been troublesome instances as a result of distance however the atmosphere at Arsenal helped him get by way of these moments.

“Mikel is nice at talking about ways however he’s taken with your loved ones and when you have an issue at residence, you may name him in the midst of the evening,” he says.

“We had a couple of breaks earlier than Christmas however in 2022 we solely had one earlier than the World Cup, so it was actually troublesome. I spoke with Mikel and Edu and informed them I used to be struggling, that I couldn’t do that one other 12 months. It was particular that they simply requested me what my thought was and let me work one week a month from the Netherlands.

“That’s the most important instance of why I like the folks within the membership a lot, because it’s not a membership simply primarily based on outcomes, it’s a extremely heat place.”

Balvers was given a signed and framed shirt to recollect his time on the membership by, however his youngsters now have two red-and-white jerseys they put on taking part in within the backyard after Daddy joined PSV, who’ve the identical colors.

He left his personal type of a leaving reward to the Arsenal squad after the final-day victory towards Everton, his manner of urging them to go on and full the job of turning into Premier League champions for the primary time in over 20 years.

“On the finish of each season I all the time made a video displaying the highlights of the entire season, however not simply on the pitch. The staff constructing, the barbecues, the whole lot. They had been actually emotional movies,” he says. “This summer time I attempted to make the message that, sure, we tried to win and had been disenchanted, however we have now to look again to the highway and the story we have now constructed collectively. We now have been wonderful, however we have now to simply accept that Manchester City are wonderful too.

“I’m not doubtful that, if Arsenal could make steps like they did final 12 months, they are often the principle staff within the Premier League. Each membership has its period.”

(High images: Getty Photographs; design: Eamonn Dalton)