A broad smile unfolds throughout Pepe Reina’s bronzed options as he recollects the injustice served as much as Mikel Arteta within the dorm room of a Barcelona farmhouse they used to name dwelling.
Reina was on the highest bunk and Arteta under – however there was little question the place the noise was coming from.
“I used to be the one loud night breathing and the opposite lads within the room had been getting upset,” explains the previous Liverpool and Napoli goalkeeper.
“So that they began to throw shinpads, footwear, flip-flops … something they might lay their palms on.
“However as a result of I used to be on high and he was on the underside a lot of them ended up hitting Mikel. The sharing of that mattress value him many sleepless nights and virtually our relationship!”
Plucked from Madrid and San Sebastian respectively as a number of the brightest younger skills in Spain, Reina and Arteta left dwelling of their mid-teens to hitch La Masia. FC Barcelona’s world-famous residential academy has produced Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta and, till 2011, was situated in a stone farmhouse throughout the highway from the Nou Camp, the membership’s iconic stadium.
Reina is satisfied that it was throughout this era that Arteta acquired a number of the traits which have helped him emerge as one in all Europe’s most promising younger managers throughout a season by which his younger Arsenal facet secured second place within the Premier League and Champions League soccer for the primary time since 2016-17, regardless of falling away within the ultimate few matches.
“It was actually powerful,” Reina tells presenter John Bennett within the BBC World Service documentary Arteta: The making of Mikel.
“We had been 13 or 14-year-old youngsters and we missed our brothers and sisters and our mother and father. I keep in mind studying letters from dwelling at the moment and there have been tears. There have been individuals crying.
“It is actually character-building. That resilience, that sturdy mentality, that dedication to get the trophy or obtain your objectives is one thing you have to develop to outlive in La Masia.
“We had been sharing the identical goals, the identical nightmares, the identical fears, and we had been all collectively supporting one another like brothers.”
In addition to buying psychological power, Arteta was additionally schooled within the Barcelona philosophy of ball retention, selflessness and positional flexibility that has reworked trendy membership soccer, with Manchester Metropolis’s Pep Guardiola as its main exponent, and each present Barcelona coach Xavi and Arsenal’s Arteta amongst his disciples.
In line with Reina, it is no coincidence that each one three performed in midfield.
“I believe the schooling in Barcelona as a participant, particularly in his place, is especially sturdy,” he says.
“It was solely regular that these gamers in these positions completed up understanding soccer higher than others.
“Mikel was born as a supervisor I believe. His intelligence on the pitch has additionally been demonstrated off it.”
A mentor to each Guardiola and Arteta, Paco Seirul-lo is an authority on the Barcelona approach. He was made first-team health coach by Johan Cruyff in 1994, after which anointed with the lofty title of “Head of Methodology” a decade later.
“The philosophy is that you just put your team-mate above your self,” he explains. “This implies leaving your ego on the door.
“Some gamers didn’t settle for it and didn’t succeed. Others understood that it wasn’t about sacrificing your self, but it surely was about tailoring your sport to the wants of your team-mate.
“That is what Arteta and Guardiola used to do: when the participant acquired the ball, he stated ‘thanks’ as a result of it had arrived precisely as he needed it.
“Arteta, like Pep, was unselfish and performed for others. His essence was to work for the workforce and assist others to thrive.
“And that is what he does now along with his gamers: he trains them in order that their solely precedence is to collaborate with their team-mates. Arteta tries to create an setting the place creativity can thrive.”
Arteta’s success as a participant and a coach is a supply of nice delight in San Sebastian, the Basque seaside metropolis the place his footballing story started.
The Antiguoko FC clubhouse is definitely missed. In a small courtyard, between a hair salon and a concrete residence block, its entrance is marked with a wood-panelled entrance door.
As soon as on the opposite facet, it turns into clear what a big half this membership has performed within the profession of, not simply Arteta, however many different high gamers.
One wall is roofed in framed shirts of 20 of the 35 Antiguoko kids who’ve gone on to play in Spain’s high flight and one other is devoted fully to images and mementos of its two golden boys: Arteta and Xabi Alonso.
“We performed many tournaments with Mikel and Xabi in the identical workforce,” remembers their former coach Roberto Montiel, now vice-president of Antiguoko.
“The three of us used to go to France to play in competitions and it was very good: that was an excellent workforce.”
Montiel oversaw Antiguoko’s youth programme for greater than 20 years – however he insists there was “one thing particular” in regards to the younger Arteta.
“He stood out from the remainder,” he says. “It was good to see such high quality in that tiny physique. He was like Messi. You watch Messi’s movies and there are numerous similarities from after they had been youngsters.
“Mikel had an excellent studying of the sport, he noticed the performs earlier than the remainder. It was as if he was watching the sport from above. Gamers like which are slightly bit particular. They see issues on the pitch that others may solely see from up within the stands.
“He additionally caught my consideration as a result of, in my tactical talks earlier than the video games, he was not like different youngsters, who received distracted, talked to one another, joked round… As a substitute, he was very attentive. He usually advised me: they’re taking part in in a 4-4-2 or 4-3-2-1 system. He was already observing the workforce’s formations and techniques.”
Regardless of his apparent capacity, Arteta by no means went on to make a aggressive look within the Barcelona first workforce, his pathway blocked by world-class skills resembling Xavi, Iniesta and an ageing Guardiola.
Halfway by means of the 2000-01 season, the membership despatched him on mortgage to Paris St-Germain to hitch a workforce stuffed with established stars resembling Ronaldinho, Jay-Jay Okocha and Nicolas Anelka.
Eighteen months later, having impressed in a Uefa Cup match towards Rangers, Arteta joined the Scottish giants, the place he quickly served discover of his fearless character.
Going into the ultimate day of the 2002-03 season, Rangers and their nice rivals Celtic had been degree on factors and objective distinction, with Rangers one forward on objectives scored.
Celtic had briefly edged forward within the title race earlier within the afternoon, however with 92 minutes on the clock in each video games, Rangers 5-1 up at Ibrox towards Dunfermline Athletic and Celtic 4-0 forward at Kilmarnock, Arteta’s facet held the narrowest of leads.
It was so shut {that a} helicopter was hovered overhead, poised to ship the trophy to whoever got here out on high.
Then, Rangers gained a penalty: an opportunity to seal the title and a home treble. It was a workforce full of expertise, however a 21-year-old Arteta stepped up.
“I may barely watch, I had my again to the penalty spot as a result of I knew how essential it was,” says Rangers team-mate Ronald de Boer, then a veteran Dutch worldwide and 12 years Arteta’s senior.
“I believe Barry Ferguson was our primary penalty-taker, however Mikel took the ball. I am positive he had nerves, however he hid them properly and scored an ideal penalty.”
As Arteta wheeled away waving his arms in direction of the delirious Ibrox stands, De Boer remembers his emotions of admiration for the younger midfielder.
“That was a giant duty from him,” he provides. “He took cost and stood up when it mattered – no person actually anticipated that.
” We knew he was an ideal participant, however to take that duty at such a younger age, in such an essential sport and second of that decisive title race towards Celtic was spectacular.
“He had the possibility to fail, however that did not occur. He was the hero.”
If it was at Rangers the place Arteta first took command on the pitch, it was at his subsequent membership Everton the place he began to grow to be a frontrunner within the dressing room.
“After we signed Mikel, we began to evolve right into a extra dynamic workforce and Mikel was very influential in that,” says his former Everton team-mate Alan Stubbs.
“He had a transparent thought of how he needed to play as a person, but additionally how he needed the workforce to play in consequence. There have been a couple of events once we had are available in at half-time and had been shedding or drawing the sport – he wasn’t afraid to offer an opinion and say we should be braver and dictate the sport extra.
“At the moment, [manager] David Moyes had extra of a structured mentality when it comes to being defensively sturdy, hitting groups on the counter-attack and be very resolute.
“I believe if it was as much as Mikel, though we had been defensively sturdy, he would reasonably have seen us go to attempt to win the sport 2-0 or 3-0, reasonably than play out a 1-0. Being life like, at the moment, with Everton, we had been by no means going to be a workforce that managed video games of soccer. However Mikel would at all times give the argument, ‘why cannot we strive?'”
On switch deadline day in August 2011, Arteta was signed by an Arsenal workforce crying out for leaders following a humiliating 8-2 defeat at Previous Trafford. It was throughout his time below Arsene Wenger that Arteta first acted upon his personal ambitions to grow to be a supervisor, albeit in unlikely environment.
The Soccer Affiliation of Wales’ (FAW) teaching programme at Dragon Park, Newport, had earned a glowing fame amongst former gamers, with Marcel Desailly and Roberto Martinez amongst these passing by means of its doorways. Its 2016 Uefa Professional Licence cohort was particularly star-studded.
“Mikel was on the professional licence, as was Thierry Henry, Sol Campbell and Freddie Ljungberg,” says their class-mate Richard Williams, a much less acquainted title maybe, however now the FAW’s head of participant improvement. “It was slightly bit particular for guys who have not been in that world.”
Even in such esteemed firm, Arteta’s focus stood out.
“The one factor I seen about being in the identical room as Mikel throughout something we did was the readability he had in what he needed to do,” says Williams. “He was very clear in how he needed his groups to play and the way he was going to go about it.
“The 12 months after we graduated he did a session at our nationwide convention and he introduced a passing drill which I nonetheless use now. It is a easy drill, however the element of motion and the element of move needed to be good.
“He was a perfectionist, which I believe most likely comes from that La Masia background – after which after all having that chance to go and work with Pep in his setting.”
Reina describes Arteta’s three-year spell as Guardiola’s assistant, which adopted his taking part in retirement at Arsenal in 2016, because the soccer teaching equal of a “Masters from Harvard”. Tales abound of late-night conferences between the pair of their central Manchester residence block to debate a brand new tactic or formation.
Williams witnessed what he calls the “simple chemistry” between them when Metropolis educated at Dragon Park earlier than a gathering with Swansea Metropolis.
“After the session, Mikel organized a Q&A for the Professional Licence candidates within the boardroom and what I will always remember was that we arrange the boardroom with 5 tables and a lectern on the entrance for Pep,” says Williams. “However when Pep walked in, he insisted that all of us sat round one desk.
“It was way more intimate and casual that approach and you can clearly see that he and Mikel had an ideal relationship. There was joking and banter between them after they had been giving the solutions again to us. So it appeared like a very snug, good setting.”
Having been given the possibility to strike out on his personal in 2019, Arteta’s Arsenal facet beat Guardiola’s Manchester Metropolis on the best way to lifting the FA Cup in his first full season – however challenges had been to comply with.
After successive eighth-place finishes, Arsenal misplaced their first three video games of the 2021-22 season to take a seat backside of the desk. One online poll of Arsenal supporters at the time showed 77% wanting him to leave.
However Arteta, maybe drawing on the resilience developed La Masia, caught to his footballing rules, jettisoning high-earning individualists like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mesut Ozil and crafting a younger, attacking workforce brimming with creativity and collective goal.
After narrowly lacking out on Champions League qualification, the Gunners set a livid tempo to steer the Premier League for a lot of the 2022-23 season. However in the end it was a tempo they had been unable to keep up as Manchester Metropolis took benefit of a late wobble to steam previous them on the house straight.
Arsenal followers’ ideas are already turning to subsequent season and past although, with Arteta because the supervisor to mould their future.
“Each cheer, chant, he lives it, he breathes it,” says Faisal Khan, host of Latte Firm, an Arsenal YouTube channel.
“We see what it means to him, as an ex-player he understands what it means to be Arsenal.
“We’re right here and competing, and I’m satisfied we shall be for years to come back and hopefully he shall be on the helm.
“We’re simply so excited to see the place it finally ends up with him.”
Reina agrees. He’s adamant that his former bunk-mate has all the things it takes to succeed on the high degree and is aware of the place he’ll flip for recommendation when he embarks on his personal teaching profession.
“You’ll want to put together your self and be intelligent with who you select as a mentor,” he says. “Mikel is up there with my favourites.
“I’ll study rather a lot if I can from his administration skills as a result of he’s going to be one of many best.”
With reporting by John Bennett, BBC World Service Sport
