Mikel Arteta has revealed the ‘biggest worry’ he faces as Arsenal manager, with the tactician seeing a clear ‘problem’ on the horizon for his squad owing to FIFA’s plans.
The 42-year-old has overseen four-and-a-half seasons at Emirates Stadium since replacing Unai Emery in December 2019. Arsenal have even improved massively with Arteta in charge, having back-to-back bids to lift their first Premier League title since the 2003/04 campaign.
Arteta also won the FA Cup during his first half-term in charge and led the Gunners back to the Champions League. The 2023/24 campaign even saw Arsenal return to the quarter-finals of UEFA’s elite club competition for the first time since 2010. But Arteta fears for the future.
Mikel Arteta sees player burnout as his ‘biggest worry’ at Arsenal
Returning to the Champions League saw Arsenal play 52 games in 23/24, having also played and won the Community Shield. It was not even the most games the Gunners have featured in since Arteta took over. The north London giants played 58 times during the 2020/21 term.
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But FIFA planning to increase the football calendar even further has left Arteta fearing what repercussions could follow. The Spaniard expects it will not be long before players refuse to play citing mental health issues due to the burnout the additional fixtures will cause them.
“We forget that we are only counting acute injuries [and] muscle injuries that keep a player out for three weeks, six weeks etc,” Arteta said, via quotes by football.london. “That’s very easy to diagnose with an MRI scan.
“The problem we’re going to have is that one day a player is going to say, ‘I’m not fit to play because mentally I’m not in the right condition’.
“You cannot put that player into an MRI scan. So, the doctor is going to have to decide whether that player is available to play the next week or in three months. When we have a few of those cases, then what happens because this game belongs to the players?
“This can happen one day and that’s my biggest worry. It is not just an injury of two weeks but a much bigger problem that we can face in the future if we continue this way.”
Arsenal failed to qualify for the 32-team 2025 FIFA Club World Cup
Arsenal manager Arteta has reasons to fear the repercussions of FIFA’s plans to expand the football calendar further. The Telegraph quotes Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) chief executive Maheta Molango saying that 80-plus games a season may soon be possible.
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Molango expressed concerns following FIFA’s intentions to expand the Club World Cup to a 32-team tournament over four weeks from next summer. The United States of America will host the inaugural 32-club edition of the Club World Cup between June 15 to July 13, 2025.
But Arsenal will not play in the tournament as their 3-2 defeat on aggregate against Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals of the Champions League ensured they do not qualify. Instead, FC Salzburg were the 12th and last European team to qualify for the expanded tournament.
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