A year ago today, Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay was “not in a great place”.
The night before, his team had suffered a “terrible loss” at home that left their NFL play-off hopes hanging by a thread.
Then he spoke with Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, whose team is another of those owned by the Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) group.
Arteta happened to be at the Rams’ training facility as he and some Arsenal executives were visiting during football’s international break.
“Mikel went into Sean’s office and they spent two hours talking about player connections, ideas and things that Mikel had done,” the Rams’ president Kevin Demoff told BBC Sport.
“Sean took a step back from the day-to-day of ‘we just lost to Miami’ and into ‘this is what makes a great leader, this is how we do it’.
“We then had this amazing run, and I truly do believe that Sean was invigorated by that conversation with Mikel. I credit Mikel with some of our turnaround last year.”
McVay led the Rams to victory in six of their next seven games to clinch the NFC West divisional title before being halted in the post-season by the eventual Super Bowl winners, the Philadelphia Eagles.
Arteta and McVay have developed a bond that has proved mutually beneficial, helping Arsenal and the Rams become title contenders in the Premier League and NFL this season.
It is also a prime example of how KSE, the world’s most valuable sports empire, external at $21.2bn (£16.3bn), is using cross-sport collaboration to become even stronger.
Why coaches have become kindred spirits
Stan Kroenke already owned the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche and Major League Soccer side Colorado Rapids when he became the Rams’ full owner in 2010, followed by Arsenal’s majority shareholder in 2011.
McVay was just 30 when hired by the Rams in 2017, while Arsenal appointed a 37-year-old Arteta in 2019.
The pair have since discovered they are kindred spirits, always open to ways to improve and get the best out of themselves and their players.
McVay was a highly-rated footballer at high school before choosing to focus on American football but it was Arteta’s man-management and leadership style that really piqued his interest in Arsenal’s All Or Northing documentary from 2021-22.
“Sean watched it and said ‘I don’t know if I would have handled [Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang] the way Mikel did’,” said Demoff. “He took a lot of strength from how Mikel handled adversity, [and thought] ‘that’s something I want to be better at’.”
Arteta and McVay have forged a friendship over several meetings on each side of the Atlantic, during their off-season, football’s international breaks or when their team plays overseas.
They have spoken of their mutual admiration and how they learn from each other, despite coaching in different sports.
“It’s not only about the sport, it’s about the culture, about managing,” Arteta said before the Rams’ NFL game at Wembley last month. “It’s always that willingness to learn, that curiosity to learn.”
Arsenal’s chief executive Richard Garlick said they share “that energy, that passion, that affability. They are like sponges – they take stuff in and invite reflection. They are brave like that. They’ll ask the players what they think”.
Demoff added: “I see so much of that in their relationship. What they often talk about is their connection with players, how that shows up and how that translates.”
