In preparation for every game, Arsene Wenger gives his players a motivational handout that helps to focus his team on the task ahead. A copy of the handout was found in a Bolton hotel for this past weekend’s 3-1 win by Arsenal at the Reebok Stadium. Here’s a transcript of what the handout said:
Confidential
Team meeting 19th September 2008
The Team:
A team is as strong as the relationships within it.
The driving force of a team is its member’s ability to create and maintain excellent relationships within the team that can add an extra dimension and robustness to the team dynamic.
This attitude can be used by our team to focus on the gratitude and the vitally impor tant benefits that the team brings to our own lives. It can be used to strengthen and deepen the relationships within it and ma ximise the oppor tunities that await a strong and united team.
Our team becomes stronger by:
Displaying a positive attitude on and off the pitch
Everyone making the right decisions for the team
Have an unshakeable belief that we can achieve our target
Believe in the strength of the team
Always want more – always give more
Focus on our communication
Be demanding with yourself
Be fresh and well prepared to win
Focus on being mentally stronger and always keep going to the end
When we play away from home, believe in our identity and play the football we love to play at home
Stick together
Stay grounded and humble as a player and as a person
Show the desire to win in all that you do
Enjoy and contribute to all that is special about being in a team – don’t take it for granted.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Bullshit
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i think arsene was very good points here. its the team first mentality and pushing yourself as an individual to build cohesion in the team that makes arsenal work well.
this is obvious in how arsene runs the team. no one player is bigger than the club and we are strong enough that we can always find a valid substitute to take the place of a player that has let the club.
unfortunatley, the team emphasis isnt apparent on other teams where their players seem to overshadow the team-whether its a player flirting with a spanish club in madrid, or a player whining about their manager being fired by their russian owner and threatening to leave.
henry left because he was bigger than the club. it was time to let him go and it was obviously the right desicion. there was trouble with adebayor over the summer, and while i think we should have let him go, he apologizred and the team is working again.
arsene knows.
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Strikes me as a bit odd that this would be labelled “Confidential”. While it is great to see that Wenger is also looking after the team's mental fitness, nothing in that letter is of a secret nature. It was mostly generic pep talk material. Perhaps it was just the letterhead it happened to be printed on.
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What a load of crap… looks like he copied down phrases from every middle manager's motivational poster he could get his hands on. Fourteen generic bullet points on teamwork, hooray!
This is why we have the Thanksgiving holiday in the US – so we can limit this BS to one day a year…
Oh Arsene, you froggie genius, you had me at “This attitude can be used by our team to focus on the gratitude and the vitally impor tant benefits “
PFFT.
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the amount of anti arsenal talk here and in the media is shocking.
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wel if the kids want to win this talk will work not for the game …..war will be waged
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nice article! nice site. you're in my rss feed now
keep it up
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Yea, very basic teamwork points, as well as points which will generally improve your character.
So in essence, not a load of rubbish. I think that the more so called “professionals” who learn some of these things the more professional they will become – in reputation as well as official status. Too many footballers need to learn this stuff.
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