Arsenal recruit ex-Olympic athlete Michael Johnson to improve players' fitness

Arsenal have called on the help of four-time Olympic gold medal winner Michael Johnson to try and develop their young players.

Johnson has been recruited to improve the speed and strength of players in the Gunners' youth structure, so they are better equipped for first-team football.

The 400m world record holder won the 200m and 400m Olympic titles at the 1996 games, as well as the 4x400m relay gold four years earlier, and a further 400m title in Sydney in 2000.

He also has eight World Championship gold medals to his name, and believes he can be of assistance at the Emirates.

“It’s about developing athletes. How do you bring an athlete from seven or eight years old all the way through to their full development as a 17 or 18 year-old," he said.

“We don’t work with the first-team players. We specialise in youth athletics development and are seen as the experts in that.

“Once you get into athletic development, you start to look at speed, strength, power, agility, suppleness – all of those different things – and pick the ones that they really are interested in.”

The 47-year-old believes British sportsmen excel in strength, but there are improvements to be made in terms of their speed and power.

He added: “Strength has always been a big one in the UK. In that aspect I would say that the UK is right up there with everyone else.

“The UK has some cutting-edge stuff in terms of strength programmes but I’d say they lag behind the States in terms of speed and power.

“Everybody is trying to get as much as they can out of their athletes, trying to find out where you can find that expertise and new training methodology that’s going to help us more effectively bring athletes through.”