Arteta article

[Evertonscouser]

The Guardian:

Every club should have one - a player who can quicken a spectator's step on the way to the game, someone who understands that, even if he did not invent the art of dribbling or passing, he can still take it to its next level. Manchester United have Cristiano Ronaldo, Arsenal have Cesc Fábregas and at Everton they have their own player who seems to be on first-name terms with the ball.

The strange thing is that, outside Merseyside, Mikel Arteta seldom gets the recognition he deserves. This week he became the first Everton player since Wayne Rooney to win the Liverpool Echo's Sports Personality of the Year award. He is a good bet to be their player of the season for a third successive year and last season he beat Ronaldo in a Premier League poll to find its most impressive midfielder. It was a fix, the result of a well-orchestrated plot by the Blue Kipper website, and Arteta blushes when it is mentioned. Nobody, however, ordered another vote.
The man himself is an unassuming type and, when he won his latest award, he was so surprised to beat Steven Gerrard, who had also been nominated, he did not have his thank-you speech prepared. Yet Arteta has all the accessories. He drives a fast car, his girlfriend is a former Miss Spain and he has a rich man's apartment in Albert Dock, with a sweeping view across the Mersey. He misses the beach at San Sebastián but he has immersed himself in Liverpudlian life - it is a pity that Luis Aragonés, Spain's coach, does not spare the time to visit England to watch the 25-year-old.

"I would love to play for my country because it's one of the biggest things you can achieve as a footballer," says Arteta. "Everyone tells me it would be easier for me if I played in Spain. But it's too much to lose. I'm settled here, I'm happy, I love this club and I wouldn't leave just for that."

Arteta's affinity with them can be gauged by the number of offers he has turned down to return. "Everton are a special club and the Premier League is the best place for me," he says. "The people here have more respect for footballers than any other country I have been to. In Spain everyone is under so much pressure because, if they are not playing well, the fans will be shouting abuse after 10 minutes. But in England it's different. The fans are so respectful, even when things are not going well." He uses his second season at Goodison to illustrate the point. "We won only one of our first nine games but the fans were right behind us all the time," he recalls. "In Spain we would have been in big trouble."

If David Moyes's main priority was making the team difficult to beat, the second was adding creativity and Arteta, with his deft set pieces and passes, was brought in. "I have been very lucky because I have played with some of the best in the world: footballers who could be classed as superstars," he says. "I have always tried to learn from others, particularly skilful players. Ronaldinho was one but my favourite was Claudio Caniggia, the Argentinian. I played with him at Rangers and I loved watching him, the way he read the game, how cheeky he was. That's how I try to play."

Opponents have cottoned on and Arteta is the most fouled player in the Premier League. "It was a shock for me when I arrived," he says. "I had to learn that a foul in Spain is different to a foul in England. It's good that the game is not always stopping for free-kicks. Then, at the end, everyone shakes hands and all the bad things are forgotten. But it's difficult sometimes because the referees don't give me enough protection. I get kicked really bad."

He recalls a conversation in the dressing room before Everton's 0-0 draw at Blackburn last week. "One of my team-mates warned me, 'Be careful because they are going to try to kick you out of the game. And he was right: they kicked me all game. It got on my nerves in the end and I grabbed [Morten Gamst] Pedersen by the throat. I shouldn't have done it - but after four or five bad ones I was starting to think, 'What's going on here?'" Today they are at home to Reading.

The bruises are testament to Arteta's influence on a side sitting defiantly in fourth place. "A club like Everton needs Europe and we all believe we can reach the Champions League," he says. "It would mean finishing above Liverpool, which will be really tough, but we have done it before and we will fight to the death to do it again. We have moved forward a long way from where we were three years ago."

His desire for the progression to continue partly derives from Everton's experiences in 2005 when they pipped Liverpool to fourth but lost to Villarreal in the Champions League qualifiers, a failure he regards as "one of the worst disappointments" of a nomadic career that began with a rich education at Camp Nou.

"I was 16 when I played my first game," he says. "I came on in the second half to replace Pep Guardiola. I looked round the pitch, at all these superstars - Figo, Luis Enrique, Kluivert, Rivaldo. Guardiola was my hero and I was panicking a little. But I was OK. The players were so good to me. Barcelona were my club and I have some regrets that I was gone a year later. But Xabi was coming through, I was 17, and I didn't want to wait two years to play regularly."

Arteta began to flower at Paris St-Germain and within 18 months he was a £5.8m player at Rangers, helping them to win the treble. "I didn't speak a word of English when I arrived," he says. "I had to learn as I went along." He is fluent now (with a slight Scouse twang) and speaks six languages but he grew homesick in Glasgow and returned for what proved to be a demoralising experience at Real Sociedad.

"They hired a new coach [José Amorrortu]," he recalls. "He was my coach when I was a kid in Bilbao and he never forgave me for joining Barcelona. I told him at the time, 'How can you deny me my dream? Barcelona have the best youth academy in the world.' But he never accepted it. He didn't play me and we didn't talk. After four months I knew I had to leave."

Everton took advantage, initially with a loan before turning it into a £2.2m deal, and Arteta now has a contract to 2012 despite knowing it could affect his chances of playing for the national team. "Everton are a big club but there are other players in my position who play for bigger clubs," he says. "Of course, it shouldn't matter what club you are playing for but it is like that and it is the same for every other national team in Europe." Maybe but Aragonés could do worse than check out the flights

Good to see he's getting recognition.

[c.ronaldo#1]

Arteta is one of the best midfielders in the Premiership.

[unitedfan]

Good read. Why isn't he in the national team? No idea, there isn't a better right winger in the current Spain squad. Joaquin at Valencia you could maybe say, but it's not like he's doing for Valencia what Arteta does for Everton.

I can only assume that it's because he isn't a "pacey" player that he gets less recognition. When it comes to attackers, these days many managers and coaches are so obsessed with pace they often overlook brilliance.

[Dragoen]

I read this one too last weekend. I really hope he soon gets the call from the spanish national team but I am afraid that it won't happen before the EC.