# Arteta motivates

By [felixsovich](https://paragraph.com/@felixsovich) · 2024-10-22

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Missing tales of how Arteta motivates? Just in case, a disclaimer: I don't think they do any good, really, but I do give them credit – they are always bizarre.

Here is a new one from an interview with Oleksandr Zinchenko in The Guardian:

Before the match we were staying in the hotel where we knew all the waiters. Then suddenly a new one appears (this is important for the plot).

Mikel says, before going out to the stadium: "Guys, I want to wake you up. We need energy. I remember once in our training camp, a competition between staff and players, you just destroyed Nicolas Jover. Let's do the same today, but we will compete with football freestyle."

Everybody's like: "What? Alex will tear him apart." Nico started doing the warm up with the ball and then started faking the injury. It was too evident, even strange. And then they call a new waiter to replace Nicolas. We didn't know he was a pro freestyler.

He destroyed me with tricks, and everybody present was very surprised by such a denouement. In the end, everybody laughed-we went to the match in a great mood.

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*Originally published on [felixsovich](https://paragraph.com/@felixsovich/arteta-motivates-1)*