‘He was alive – you saw it in his eyes’: inside the years that shaped Mikel Arteta
‘He was alive – you saw it in his eyes’: inside the years that shaped Mikel Arteta. In the runup to the Champions League final, the Arsenal manager’s first footballing steps in the Basque Country and Barcelona are recalled by those who shared them The way Santi Cazorla tells it, rolling about laughing, Mikel Arteta may just be the worst person you could ever wish to watch a match with.
In the runup to the Champions League final, the Arsenal manager’s first footballing steps in the Basque Country and Barcelona are recalled by those who shared them The way Santi Cazorla tells it, rolling about laughing, Mikel Arteta may just be the worst person you could ever wish to watch a match with. Which is why he knew his friend would be a coach and why he told him to go away and become one, convinced great things were coming.
“When we were injured at Arsenal, we used to meet at home for games, and he would grab the remote and pause it,” Cazorla recalls. “I would say: ‘What are you stopping it for?’ He would say: ‘No, go back, go back,’ rewind it 30 seconds, and then ask: ‘What do you see?’ I would say: ‘I see a paused screen.
I don’t see anything!’” So Arteta would explain. “‘Don’t you think this player is badly positioned?