Eddie Nketiah has shared details about the team bonding trips enjoyed by the Arsenal squad.
Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah has given an insight into the team bonding trips that are organised by the club.
These trips and excursions are designed to strengthen the bonds and relationships between the Arsenal players, and will form part of Mikel Arteta’s plan to forge a strong sense of unity and togetherness within his group of first team stars.
Whilst not ostensibly directly related to football, these outings and adventures will encourage communication and teamwork. During these bonding trips, Arteta will routinely be monitoring his players’ interactions, looking to see how they demonstrate leadership skills and deal with challenges they aren’t used to facing.
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Nketiah appreciates the value of these bonding sojourns. Speaking to the official Arsenal club website, the 24-year-old said, “we’ve had a few good ones. We went to Crystal Maze last season. It was a different experience for me, I haven’t done something like that myself, so it was good to do, it was good fun and you get to spend time with your teammates not just at football. It gives people the chance to show a bit more of themselves, and it will help you express yourself, and that can translate to the pitch as well.”
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Why Arteta’s bonding trips matter at Arsenal
Relationships between players off the field can certainly impact how they play together on the pitch. If there is a strong bond there, and an innate understanding of each other, that can often be expressed with on-field chemistry, as the players’ appreciate how they each like to play.
Equally, there will inevitably be times when the harmony in the Arsenal dressing room is tested and strained this season. Matches will be lost, players dropped, and individual mistakes made on the pitch. How the squad respond to these set-backs could define the success or failure of their entire season.
Arteta will know that the effect of these bonding trips will be most obvious when the going gets tough. He will hope to see his players supporting one another, giving each other confidence, and rallying together as a group when it is needed most.
These trips also offer a respite from the repetitive daily grind of training, and the relentless pressure that comes with playing in the Premier League for Arsenal. There is an extra weight of expectation on Arteta and his players this season after their success last time out. They will only be able to cope with that, and rise to the occasion, if they are truly a team.