A THREAD:
There has been a lot of talk about the cultural shift at Arsenal under Arteta. Meet Steve Round, a football journeyman who is Arteta’s right hand man for developing culture and enforcing the “non-negotiables”. The perfect man manager for a young and developing squad.

Steve Round began his career as many coaches do, as a footballer. His career lasted from 1990-1996 where he featured for Derby County and Nuneaton before his career was cut short due to a serious injury.

Immediately after retirement, Round was offered a job as a technical coach role at his former club Derby County. At age 26, Round was able to start to gain coaching experience from a very young age. Coaching has taken Steve Round on quite a journey.

Steve Round has experience as a technical coach for Derby County, Middlesbrough, England National Team. In addition he has assistant manager experience for Everton, Manchester United, Derby, and was most recently the technical director for Aston Villa.

Mikel Arteta first met Steve Round during his time at Everton. “I’d coached him previously at another club when he was a player and we kept a relationship going ever since. He got offered the job and rang me and asked if I’d come on and join his staff.”

On why he joined:
“I had no hesitation for two reasons. One, what a magnificent club Arsenal are, it’s just a great, great football club. It’s a massive club. The other is Mikel I think he’s got a real chance to become one of the best coaches in the world, let alone the UK.”

On young players:
“With young kids there is a massive emphasis on skill acquisition. On cultivating enjoyment and playing free. As they get older, it is important that we begin to equip them with the skills they will need to succeed in the professional footballing environment.”

On how Arsenal train and prepare:
“The beginning of each session focuses on certain skill development around a specific theme. The middle bulk of the session is around the manager’s ideas of how we play; our methodology, this is how we play, this is what we do.”

“Closer to the game, we start training for the opposition, so this is tweaking what we do to exploit the opposition’s weaknesses or tweak it to negate their strengths.”

It sounds like there is a detailed gameplan for each opponent.

It is widely understood that Round is responsible for working more directly with the culture of the club with assistants Freddie Ljungberg and Albert Stuivenburg working more directly on the technical and tactical side of the game.

One specific area that he believes will evolve over the next 10 years is the mentality of players and teaching them how to cope better with the pressures and expectations that come with being an athlete during the social media era.

“For me it is mentality, for the past 10 yrs we have been exploring this and are aware of the elements of mental health, preparation, and control. Over the next 10 yrs we will have to get to grips with this and understand how important it is and the best ways to support players”

Elite Cultures
“You’re forever trying to build a resonant environment and take it away from dissonance. Discipline, self discipline and making sure that positive behaviours are continually reinforced. Negative behaviours are pulled up there are certain things we will not accept”

“If a teammate is showing disrespect to another teammate, perhaps the ball hasn’t come to him and he’s thrown his arms up. That’s telling the world this guy has made a mistake. We don’t blame like that. We don’t do that. It is the team’s job to pick him up.”

“It’s making sure the environment you’re in and the culture you’re trying to build is consistent and consistent at the elite level. You’re consistently giving them the information that helps them become better players or helps them become a far better team.”

It is clear that Arsenal have had a transformation of culture under Mikel Arteta and a lot of credit is due to Steve Round. This injection of experience and working with people across England has allowed him to become the man to help Arteta transform the culture at Arsenal.

For more Steve Round check out this sit down interview where he goes more into depth about these topics.

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