Dixies 60 » Arteta M

Why Arteta will not be moving to Arsenal.

Ed — Wed, 19 May 2010 08:03:59 +0000

The Premier League’s ecosystem took a big hit yesterday with news that Cesc Fabregas will be leaving Arsenal and heading back to Barcelona. The first I heard of this was when Oliver Kay gave his opinion on Twitter saying: “If, as G Balague implies, Barca feel Arsenal “owe” them after using legal loophole to sign Cesc in 2003, they’re misguided”The press will have us believe that Cesc running off into the arms of Pep Guardiola and his chums at Barca will mean that Arsene Wenger will turn to Mikel Arteta as a replacement. Don’t believe everything you read in the press.

Most Gooners I have spoken to since the news broke feel that they are losing the jewel in their crown and are utterly crestfallen, but there are some good opinions emanating from the Emirates with regards to Evertonians and our beloved Mikky Arteta (who is being incessantly linked with a move to Arsenal). First off, as a Gooner friend pointed out, when was the last time Arsene Wenger bought an experienced, well-known, Premier League performer? The answer is Sol Campbell, who was nabbed on a free transfer way back in 2001. Clearly it isn’t Wenger’s style to buy like this, and he’d have to pay big money to prise him from us. Obviously the press hacks who are linking Arteta with a move to Arsenal don’t realise (or don’t care) that Wenger patently doesn’t operate like this. It isn’t because Wenger doesn’t have the funds, it is because he has a strict ideoloy that he adheres to: Arteta is too old, not good enough (in Wengers eyes at least – he came out last season and admitted that whilst Arteta is good, he isn’t good enough for Arsenal). So thankfully, Wenger is a stubborn man and unlikely to bend his transfer policy for Arteta.

The second huge factor as to why Arteta will not be moving to Arsenal comes from our end. Arteta has plenty of time left on his contract, has only just come back from injury, and his consistent claims to be happy at Goodison have become louder and louder as the season has progressed.

Everton:No Jags? No Mikky? No Yak? Less is more!

Ed — Mon, 18 May 2009 11:38:00 +0000

“Here comes success, hoo-ray success!”
So hollered Detroit’s grizzled Iggy Pop, the optimistic lyrics mirroring the minds of thousands of Everton fans who jubilantly bounced through the week on Champagne bubbles after our Cup win over United. We even managed to bag a point a Stamford Bridge, and things were looking very rosy. That is until Phil Jagielka’s injury stopped us all in our tracks.
Jagielka has had a wonderful season at Everton, looking more assured with each game and forcing his way further into Capello’s thoughts and the England squad along the way. With our bare bones squad, a decimated strikeforce and a weakened midfield – it was comforting to have so much solidity at the back. For Phil to miss the Cup Final is painful for everyone, but it is just yet another setback in a sea of problems which started last summer with CEO Keith Wyness walking – and somehow we are heading to this season’s finish line still fighting for a trophy. At Everton every injury to personnel miraculously transforms into a team building exercise, we are swiftly becoming the masters of less is more.
It has been a funny old season for the funny old game. Newly promoted Hull City rose so fast they got the bends, while previously bullet proof Aston Villa now look as prone as Detroit roadkill. Arsenal have had a rocky season but are firing on all cylinders now, and Everton, despite their rancid start, have had a strong season. Riley may be a United fan (we know he isn’t really), Clattenburg may support the RS and Lady Luck – more important than those two shambling buffoons – is definitely not a Toffee. So the cards have been dealt, for our star defender and burgeoning England squad player – anterior cruciate damage and at least six months out – for our Iberian midfield laureate – season ending knee damage too – and for our main striker, a man who scores more goals than I have hot dinners – a ruptured Achilles tendon.
All you have to do is look at the Premier League table to see that thick black line between fourth and fifth, a line that separates the haves from the have-nots. First amongst the underclass is usually Everton, and we are seen as outsiders in the FA Cup too, with many a pundit already dismissing our chances against Chelsea. Things will definitely be harder without Jagielka, but when a team knocks three of the five teams above them in the league out of the FA Cup they can never be written off in such a cavalier fashion. Chelsea could also still progress to the Champions League Final, which is just three days before our Wembley match-up. Against Barcelona on Tuesday Chelsea’s millionaire superheroes looked decidedly Clark Kent, and I fancy Everton, comfortable in their underdog status, to hassle, harry, and harangue them in the Cup Final.
Above all, no matter how gutting the Jagielka injury is, we need to remember that it has happened to the strongest area of our squad. Defence is one of the few positions where Everton have reinforcements; step up Joey Yobo. Jags may be our number one choice for centre half , but Joey Yobo is the man who helped us sneak under the velvet rope, and into fourth place. This is Moyes’ first chance at silverware, and his first Everton signing – Joey Yobo – could yet help him get it.

Everton put to the sword by Junior Gunners

Ed — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 04:41:00 +0000

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? I was left contemplating that after a nasty 1-4 home defeat to Arsenal with all the kick in the teeth trimmings. Does Eduardo’s handball exist (despite the confirming howls of disgust from the Goodison crowd) if the ref and his linesmen don’t see it? Is Arteta’s non-violent hand flail all the more real and reprehensible to ref Martin Atkinson because it happened two feet away?… The irony won’t be lost on Moyes that in the week that he presented the FA with a video dossier of offside inconsistencies against his team, the fixture list brought him a result in some part sculpted by the referee.
Everton dominated the first half, but threw it all away in the second – something which will boil blue blood. Everton went up through sheer hard work, a corner being pounced on by not one, but two Everton players, Cahill scything down on the ball and Yakubu attempting to head it, the ball bouncing in to the corner. 1-0 Everton. Going in at half time the Arsenal team must have looked to rainmaker Wenger to cure their goal drought, and the Frenchman must have come up with some rousing magic, as his side almost instantly started scoring in the second half.
Eduardo’s first of two saw Everton succumb to the young Arsenal side and their playground brilliance, conceding four goals in the process. The Brazilian’s second was again a fiercely punished goal, squirming around Jagielka and finishing smartly, the ref missing his handball en route to goal. Bendtner then proceeded to get sent off for a second yellow courtesy of a leg scraping studs up tackle. And with Everton being roared on Adebayour scored Arsenal’s third followed shortly after by Arteta’s red. The Spaniard seemed utterly bemused when ref Martin Atkinson sent him off – he had the quizzical look of a matador that had the red cape turned on him.
All in all a gutting result, not only because we could finally have claimed the scalp of a “Big Four” club (currently played four, won 0, drawn 1, lost 3) and move closer to the Champions League spots, but also because we will now be without Arteta as he completes a three game ban. Hopefully the imminent opening of the transfer window will cauterize these wounds.

Why Everton's Potential New Signing Could Bring A Spain Call-up For Arteta.

Ed — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:27:00 +0000

Over the past week Everton have been linked with Valencia’s David Albelda; the Spanish star, 29, formerly captain of Valencia, has fallen out with Ronald Koeman since the Dutchman took over at the club. Albelda is a defensive midfielder who was converted from a central defender, and took over the captaincy of Valencia after Gaizka Mendieta was sold.

According to Spanish football guru Sid Lowe, such is the nosedive in Valencia’s La Liga form that players are queuing up to leave the club, and Albelda and goalkeeper Canizares have even stronger reasons than other players to want to leave. Both players are Spanish internationals and both realise that their positions with the national side are in jeopardy unless they get regular football, the situation is complicated even further by the fact that there is a La Liga edict which prevents players who have played more than 5 games for one club from transferring to another Spanish side in the same season.

All this opens up the possibility of an Everton swoop, but Albelda would surely be mad to move to a club which his Spanish International manager doesn’t watch regularly – and this is the crux of the matter – if Albelda does sign for Everton one of his main aims will be to stay in contention for the Spanish side – and if Luis Aragonés does start watching Everton games, he might be intoxicated by Arteta, performing toung twisters with his feet.

So does Albelda hold the key for Arteta’s international career (which has been, up to now, non-existent.) Arteta constantly shrugs off suggestions that a lack of international recognition could force him to leave Everton, and merely emphasises his dreams of playing for Athletico Madrid one day. Would these dreams be dulled by a call up to the Spanish national side?