Meet Arsenal's latest signing – a chocolate labrador

Mikel Arteta is no stranger to innovative motivational techniques, famed for his inspiring pre-match speeches, he will stop at nothing to get the best out of his players. But a recent signing has seen this approach go one step further as the Spaniard brought a chocolate labrador called Win to the London Colney training ground.

The players have immediately taken to their latest squad member, with Win regularly greeting them as they enter for training.

Photo: Arsenal Instagram

With Arsenal splashing the cash this season on German international Kai Havertz, Win was used as part of the welcome part to greet the ex-Chelsea player. As a dog lover himself, it must have certainly endeared him to his new club!

Photo: Arsenal Instagram

Arteta will stop at nothing in his attempts to return Arsenal to their former glory, telling Arsenal.com, “I carefully chose the dog and, in my opinion, it’s the perfect representative of who we are right now. Her name is Win, we all love winning and Win needs a lot of love. So the love for Win, that was basically the feeling.”

Whilst Win isn’t a typical mascot, she certainly isn’t the first live animal used to inspire their team, in fact, there’s a long tradition of animal mascots, especially in American collegiate sports, so let’s take a look at some of the best!

The Univerity of Georgia Bulldogs have had a live English bulldog as a mascot since 1956, all of them from the same family and called Uga. The current Uga is the eleventh in this storied line of good boys.

Everything is bigger in Texas, and this includes the University of Texas mascot, Bevo. Fittingly, Bevo is a Texan Longhorn, with the UT sports teams sharing the same name. Bevo was first introduced in 1916 and 107 years later the fifteenth iteration is still going strong.

The University of Washington go by the nickname Huskies, so it is only fitting they have an Alaskan Malamute for a mascot. Dubs was first introduced in 2008 before passing in 2021 but Dubs II is currently in charge of the role, and by all accounts is doing a fantastic job.

Louisiana State University uses a live Royal Bengal tiger as their mascot, which is a slightly more controversial choice given the issues with big cats in captivity. Having said that, they only use tigers that have been donated from animal parks with poor conditions rather than breeding or purchasing them.

The University of Oklahoma is leaning into the history of the state with its choice of nickname and mascot. Named the ‘Sooners’ after the pioneers who landed in Oklahoma at the end of the 19th century, and represented by two horses named Boomer and Sooner who pull a wagon onto the football field before every game.

The University of Tennessee chose a Bluetick Coonhound called Smokey as their live animal mascot with the original being chosen through a contest way back in the 1950s. The current Smokey is the tenth dog to take on the role and will be entering their 10th season as the official mascot this coming football season.

Ralphie is an American Bison who represents the University of Colorado and runs the field at the start of every half during a home football game. Ralphie takes five handlers to ensure she stays on course and stays on an undisclosed ranch in her spare time to ensure her safety.

Challenger is a bald eagle who was raised by humans after being found abandoned from its nest. As such, it could not return to the wild and instead was trained to swoop and soar around stadiums before sports games. Challenger has retired from flying appearances these days but appeared at multiple Pro Bowls and College Football National Championship games.

Bill the Goat has served as the mascot for the Navy Midshipmen since 1893 and plays a key part in the fierce rivalry between the  United States Naval Academy at Annapolis and the United States Military Academy at West Point. Various Billys have been kidnapped over the years as part of the famous Army-Navy rivalry week tradition but hopefully none were harmed!

The University of South Carolina Gamecocks appropriately have an Old English rooster as their live mascot for gamedays, and they may well win the ‘Best Named Live Mascot Award’. Sir Big Spur is truly an incredible name and is deserving of applause… if only the football team was as good…

Temple University has one of the less common nicknames amongst collegiate sports, teams, eschewing the usual ‘tigers’ or ‘bulldogs’ and going with ‘owls’ instead. As such, they have a live great horned owl watching on as the football team takes the field and is wonderfully named Stella, which is seemingly entirely incongruous with anything Temple related.