Mikel Arteta has revealed that he might have accepted the opportunity to play for England if circumstances had allowed it.
Despite a successful club career, he was never capped at the senior level for Spain, largely due to the abundance of midfield talent available to La Roja at the time.
In 2010, Arteta explored the possibility of representing England, with then-manager Fabio Capello keen on making it happen.
However, the plan ultimately fell through, and Arteta did not make a senior appearance for any national team.
Following the controversial decision by the England FA to appoint Thomas Tuchel as the new manager of the Three Lions, Arteta was asked if he would have considered playing for England.
He said on Sky Sports:
‘I was thinking about that the other day.
‘I was actually talking to (sporting director) Edu about that at lunch. Yeah, I would have done it.
‘I feel very proud about it. I was very realistic, looking at the players Spain had at the time, and how big a challenge I had. You need to know your level, that is very important. Look in the mirror. At the end it didn’t happen. But it was good, at least to think about it.
‘If you cannot do it, you cannot do it. I wasn’t prepared to fight against the world.’
Just Arsenal Opinion
It would have been great for Arteta to have played for England, but now he can only manage their senior team, and perhaps that will happen in the future.
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Arteta wouldn’t have been ahead of Lampard, Gerrard, Scholes, Joe Cole or even Hargreaves. Kirean Dier & Jermaine Jenas too.
Must be humble.” Know your level”
Blimey Dougal, you don’t rate MA very highly at all do you?
I see him behind Lampard and Gerrard, equal to Cole and Scholes, but way ahead of Hargreaves, Jenas and Dier.
Important to remember that England didn’t win anything with those players you mentioned.
Scholes was better at what he did, as was Gerrard, but Lampard and Gerrard couldn’t play together. But Cole/Hargreaves/Jenas/Dyer? You’re having a laugh, surely?
Arteta was a good player without being a great one, so might have fitted into the England squads of the day, but with limited game time.
Arteta was an excellent player in his day. I feel his best was at Everton, before he came to Arsenal. Around the time he came to Arsenal he was starting to lose a bit of pace and hence Wenger started playing him further back, where he did a decent job as well. In any other era he would have got 100 caps for Spain, but in 2010 they had their best ever team, one of the best teams anyone has ever had, with some of the world’s best-ever midfielders, and although Arteta was very good, he wasn’t one of the world’s best-ever.
Now Arteta’s saying (Guardian) that he “would take a lot of pride” in managing England, which isn’t surprising as he’s lived more than half his life in the UK.
Arteta was certainly a reasonable player but as the article says he didn’t stand a chance of getting into the truly great Spain midfield at that time. As for England, it may have been possible, I guess, as the overall strength/quality wasn’t as good as the Spanish. Who knows?
Another of the “what ifs” – there seem to be one or two of these stories around on JA currently. Good fillers for slow news days.
Boring international breaks are always a pain Bertie, thank god we’re back to proper football!
But it IS an article about Arsenal all the same….
Just like it was yesterday, Tim Cayhill, Arteta and the Big Belgian, they were hard and compact.
Surely the gaffer was not at Gearad level neither Lampard or Scoles, but he could hold his own.
Probably his best years were playing for Everton. I thought he didn’t play the right position at Arsenal. Too deep. Not sure he would have played for England much. A good Arsenal player but not great.
Wouldn’t have got into our midfield