Per Mertesacker Says Arsenal Players Failed to Repay Arsene Wenger's Faith

Arsenal academy manager Per Mertesacker has said the team's players were at fault for not repaying the faith former boss Arsene Wenger showed them during his time in the squad. 

Mertesacker, 34, joined the Gunners in 2011 and made 221 appearances for the club before he retired in 2018, assuming his role as academy boss in July of that year.

James Olley of the Evening Standard cited an extract from Mertesacker's autobiography, Big Friendly German, in which the former centre-back bemoaned Arsenal's tendency to lose games in bunches.

Mertesacker placed his trust in Wenger's methods and his willingness to stick with certain players despite pressure to switch his selection::

"In 2015-16, he didn't buy a single outfield player, just a new keeper—Petr Cech—because he was convinced that the squad was good enough to win the title. People were beside themselves, but Wenger was thinking on a deeper level: 'What happens to my starting forward if I add a new one? Is that really going to improve the team, or would I be unsettling my best man? Is five people fighting for the same position a good thing?'

"First and foremost, Wenger saw us as human beings and he had a lot of faith in us, which is why he stood by us. Ultimately, we as players need to ask ourselves whether we did everything possible to justify his trust. Did we implement his instructions perfectly? Were we pulling together? Did we learn from our mistakes? No. Wenger has won three Premier League titles, which is proof enough of his standing as a ­manager. The team, on the other hand, had fallen short since 2004.”

Mertesacker won three FA Cups during his eight-year stay at the Emirates Stadium (2014-15 and '17), but the closest he came to a Premier League crown was their runner-up finish to Leicester City in 2016.

Unai Emery replaced Arsene Wenger as Arsenal manager in the summer of 2018. "Le Professeur" stepped down after 22 years in north London, managing the club in Europe in each of those campaigns (19 of which were in the UEFA Champions League), per Sky Sports Statto:

Mertesacker added that every team goes through bad patches in form, "the trick is minimising them."

He added:

"Other teams were better at that. They managed setbacks better, not letting themselves be intimidated by those first negative waves and ignoring what people on the outside were saying. We didn't have the ability to shift quickly and keep our faith after a disappointment.

“When we lost one game, we often lost a few in a row. We could show off our class across six FA Cup games, but 38 League matches in 10 months were a different matter. We simply lacked the consistency all top teams need."

Underwhelming transfer windows and missed expectations—as far as the fans were concerned—became a staple during Wenger's last few years at Arsenal. Mertesacker even acknowledged the kind of chants from supporters telling the manager to "spend some f--king money!" 

"Wondering whether it was also his greatest weakness and whether he was too lenient with us is, in my opinion, a little too simplistic. If the fans had got their way, there would have been five new top signings every year," he said.

However, Wenger recently spoke to beIN Sports and attested to past interest in Lionel Messi to support the notion he was intent on making landmark signings:

Mertesacker praised the Frenchman's stubbornness to stick "with his convictions and his players, no matter how strong the wind was blowing. It was his greatest strength."

The former defender studied under a mind he clearly respects from their time together in London, with Mertesacker well-placed to possibly follow in Wenger's footsteps with the first team one day.