Per Mertesacker says everything about the coming season will feel a bit more special than before, given what’s to come next summer.
The German centre-back told Arsenal.com that he’s already had the feeling during pre-season that things are different for him this time because he knows it’s his last year.
Arsenal’s club captain has announced that he plans to retire at the end of the season, at the age of 33. He will take over as the head of the Arsenal academy, as the official club website announced last month.
This all means that everything about this season will be the last time he gets to experience it as a player. His last pre-season, last Community Shield match, last opening game of the season.
This has given the centre-back extra motivation to make the most of it. We’ve already seen what a motivated Mertesacker can bring, even at this stage of his career, after he put in a man-of-the-match performance in the FA Cup final against Chelsea and helped Arsenal to a victory over Everton with just 10 men the previous week.
He said: “I focus even more to make it as enjoyable as possible for myself. I enjoy being a player, I enjoy being part of that group and I want to make that a special group.
“So I focus even more because this is like the last job, the last opportunity, so one more shot and that’s why there is even more focus every training session not to pick up another injury.”
Arsenal will need to make good use of Per’s experience. There are younger players in the side, particularly in defence, such as Rob Holding, Calum Chambers and Hector Bellerín who all have a good chance at becoming regulars in the first-team.
He’s already had the chance to get to know some of the youth players he’ll be working with next year during the club’s pre-season tour.
Although based on their progression so far, Reiss Nelson and Maitland-Niles in particular may have started to make the step up to the first-team by the time Per takes over. But for now, it’s about starting his last season strongly, beginning with Chelsea on Sunday.