When Pep Guardiola’s name appears on your phone, you take the call. You stop what you are doing. He demands nothing less than your sole focus. It’s as if he’s put the rest of the world on mute for the duration he has your attention.
Mikel Arteta first met this hypnotic man many years earlier. He had grown up idolising this magician who could bend space, time and football to his will, long before the Catalan coaching sensei learned to choreograph whole teams to do the same. A 16-year-old Arteta would make his Barcelona B debut as a substitute for Guardiola, then-club captain and 11 years his protégé’s senior. The former never made a senior Barcelona appearance but, with the pair both schooled by Johan Cruyff principles and with a contacts book in common, they kept in touch. And, a decade and a half later, Arteta received the call that would adjust his career’s sails.
It was now April 2012. The days were getting longer and Arteta’s first season wearing Arsenal red and white was drawing to a close. Guardiola wasn’t ringing to offer his fellow La Masia alumnus a job – that was another conversation for another timeline. He had simply rung an old acquaintance to pick his brain about Chelsea, Barcelona’s next opponents in the Champions League.
Arteta gave his two cents. He explained succinctly the strengths and weaknesses of an outfit he had recently helped Arsenal to humble 5-3 at Stamford Bridge. He had even set up Robin van Persie’s injury-time hat-trick goal. Pep listened intently. “I must ask his opinion more often,” he said as he hung up.
As compliments go, there are few bigger in the game than the most revered manager of a generation asking for a tactical take from an uncapped 30-year-old midfielder. It was an early endorsement of a football mind that Guardiola would mine on a regular basis.
“FIRSTLY, I’LL HAVE EVERYONE 120 PER CENT COMMITTED – IF NOT, YOU DON’T PLAY FOR ME”
“THAT WAS SO ARTETA”
Guardiola grew up fascinated by British football’s romance and passion, admiring from afar its stacked pyramid, cup replays and travelling support. Arteta never had the luxury of distance. Unlike his playing and coaching mentor, he didn’t leave his boyhood club of Barcelona on his own terms.
A gap year away at Paris Saint-Germain in 2001-02 – playing alongside Ronaldinho, Jay-Jay Okocha, Mauricio Pochettino and other big names – culminated in Barça spitting Arteta out to Rangers. He was just 20. The midfielder picked up English with a Glaswegian twang and learned a few choice swear words, as those who have seen All or Nothing can testify, before returning home to San Sebastian and Real Sociedad.
That didn’t pan out, either. In the early summer of 2004, La Real planned to build their midfield around Arteta and Xabi Alonso – childhood friends and neighbours on Calle Matia, a short throw-in from the Playa de la Concha city-centre beach where they once honed their craft – but within six months the Basque pair were opposing generals
