[Sport] Mikel Arteta: The rejection and determination that made a manager

[BirSaNN]

A broad smile unfolds across Pepe Reina's bronzed features as he recalls the injustice served up to Mikel Arteta in the dorm room of a Barcelona farmhouse they used to call home.

Reina was on the top bunk and Arteta below - but there was no doubt where the noise was coming from.

"I was the one snoring and the other lads in the room were getting upset," explains the former Liverpool and Napoli goalkeeper.

"So they started to throw shinpads, shoes, flip-flops … anything they could lay their hands on.

"But because I was on top and he was on the bottom many of them ended up hitting Mikel. The sharing of that bed cost him many sleepless nights and almost our relationship!"

Plucked from Madrid and San Sebastian respectively as some of the brightest young talents in Spain, Reina and Arteta left home in their mid-teens to join La Masia. FC Barcelona's world-famous residential academy has produced Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta and, until 2011, was located in a stone farmhouse across the road from the Nou Camp, the club's iconic stadium.

LISTEN: Arteta - The making of Mikel
Reina is convinced that it was during this period that Arteta acquired some of the characteristics that have helped him emerge as one of Europe's most promising young managers during a season in which his young Arsenal side secured second place in the Premier League and Champions League football for the first time since 2016-17, despite falling away in the final few matches.

"It was really tough," Reina tells presenter John Bennett in the BBC World Service documentary Arteta: The making of Mikel.

"We were 13 or 14-year-old kids and we missed our brothers and sisters and our parents. I remember reading letters from home at that time and there were tears. There were people crying.

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"It's really character-building. That resilience, that strong mentality, that determination to get the trophy or achieve your goals is something you need to develop to survive in La Masia.

"We were sharing the same dreams, the same nightmares, the same fears, and we were all together supporting each other like brothers."

As well as acquiring mental strength, Arteta was also schooled in the Barcelona philosophy of ball retention, selflessness and positional flexibility that has transformed modern club football, with Manchester City's Pep Guardiola as its leading exponent, and both current Barcelona coach Xavi and Arsenal's Arteta among his disciples.

According to Reina, it's no coincidence that all three played in midfield.

"I think the education in Barcelona as a player, especially in his position, is particularly strong," he says.

"It was only normal that those players in those positions finished up understanding football better than others.

"Mikel was born as a manager I think. His intelligence on the pitch has also been demonstrated off it."

A mentor to both Guardiola and Arteta, Paco Seirul-lo is an authority on the Barcelona way. He was made first-team fitness coach by Johan Cruyff in 1994, and then anointed with the lofty title of "Head of Methodology" a decade later.

link: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/65646318