WOLVES HUNGRY FOR THE EUROPA

I DON’T see any change in Arsenal’s Premier League position under Mikel Arteta – but I do see a team playing with more respect for their manager.

And sometimes those perceptions are the most important window to what’s happening at a club.

The bare stats don’t tell you that. When Unai Emery left, Arsenal were eighth in the table, seven points off a Champions League place.

Now they’re eighth in the table, nine points off a Champions League place.

Yet things seem different. I can’t pretend to be an insider at the Emirates, I only know Arteta from a distance across my city when he played for Everton while I was still at Liverpool.

Yet I can see a more content camp, and I can see a manager having an effect on players.

I can see a team which is at least invested in his project, even if there are still huge questions in terms of what quality they’ve got there. I always think a club where you are constantly hearing about ‘leaks’ from the dressing room, about certain players being unhappy over this or that, is a club with problems in the camp.

When you have a squad with the right culture, in the right environment, you don’t have that moaning and those snide remarks. You don’t hear the chatter.

We definitely heard it with Emery. We also saw discontent on the pitch, with a side not comfortable with what they were doing. He didn’t take the players with him.

Arteta is having an effect on the pitch and you can see that in recent results, but also in the commitment of the players, and their resolve. The culture looks better. Why? For me, the conclusions are so obvious: manmanagement.

I don’t think you can manage players just by using the big stick any more, you need to create an environment for players to thrive.

That’s not mollycoddling them, it’s making them feel comfortable so they can believe.

When I arrived at Brisbane as the new manager they were used to losing. The club was used to losing.

We turned it around by changing everything about that culture of losing. We changed the environment by making the training interesting, by making the players want to be there.

We changed the mentality by showing that we believed in them, so they believed.

That’s where it all starts, and Arteta has given players who were not performing some belief. That’s man-management.

As a manager, you have to find ways that encourage players to give what you want, and that starts with belief. But also respect, from you to them and from them to you.

I can see it with Arteta now, but interestingly not so much with the Tottenham side they face this weekend, or Jose Mourinho.

Things change. Momentum changes. Personnel changes.

Neither side has a squad currently good enough to make the Champions League. Both managers need to change the whole culture. But right now,

Arteta has managed to change it more.

IT has always shocked me how many sides don’t want to be in the Europa League. They spend all season fighting to get up the table to get into Europe, and when they get there moan about it. Which is why Wolves are so refreshing this season. Not only do they seem to be really enjoying their European campaign, but they are also desperate to repeat it. You can see that in everything they give. They are new to this position, being in and around the top four, looking to gatecrash that party, and are clearly relishing the prospect. What I see is a talented manager who has created an environment and a mentality where players believe they can go further, get even higher. I was asked recently where players like Raul Jimenez and Adama Traore (below) should be looking to end up, which clubs should be in for them? Well why should they leave right now? They are clearly at a point in their lives where they are loving their football, are achieving ambitions and are progressing. Can Wolves go higher? I honestly don’t know, because it’s so hard to break into that top four. But I do know they will give it a real good go under a manager who has created such an impressive culture. And I know this too: Wolves would have started this season looking to put some pressure on those clubs who were just below that big-four group. Clubs like Arsenal and Spurs. And they’ve ended up doing so much more than that. They have leapfrogged them. So it’s possible to go further. And I would not bet against them doing that this season, lifting that European trophy they clearly enjoy chasing.

GUNNER GET BETTER Mikel Arteta has changed the culture at Arsenal and is beginning to reap the rewards