ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Two Questions

I was having a discussion the other day concerning Arteta's constant (and slightly bewildering) ommission from the Spanish national team. One of the reasons for this must surely be that he is playing for a non-CL club outside of his home country. If this really was a factor then it stands to reason that he would have to move in order to fall into contention... Yet he does seem perfectly happy here!

Has anyone ever seen any quotes by him regarding the national team and his desire to play in it? I suppose him being a Basque might mean that the Spanish national team is of little interest to him (Although there obviously are alot of Basques that proudly represent Spain..)?
Paul Hetherington, Nottingham Posted 26/11/2007 at 17:04:32

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Philip McAvoy
1 Posted 27/11/2007 at 09:05:46

He?s definitely indicated his interest to play for the Spainish team. As regards him being a Basque there was a Basque 11 team playing last year and Arteta wasn?t even invited to that!!!

Bert Nesbitt
2 Posted 27/11/2007 at 09:53:29

Who the fuck cares? Playing for Spain would make him a prime target for Europe’s big boys,I hope he’s never capped!

Chris Marks
3 Posted 27/11/2007 at 12:31:18

Watching Sky Sports’ Revista de la Liga show about three weeks ago, their resident expert Guillem Balague commented that players like Arsenal’s Almunia and Everton’s Arteta will always suffer from the ’out of sight, out of mind’ perception existing in Spain - if you don’t play in Spain, you’re off the radar.

Fabregas is still not a regular in Spain’s lineup. Other Premier League playes who do feature for Spain like Fernando Torres and Reina at the RS were established starts before coming over here.

Sally Christopher
4 Posted 27/11/2007 at 11:53:15

Mikel Arteta... would play even better.... if you stopped calling him a Spaniard!! He's Basque you know, and 'Basko' rhymes better anyway

Connor Rohrer
5 Posted 27/11/2007 at 15:49:04

This is what Sky sports journalist said about Arteta and his international ambition.

Hi Guillem, love your work! A couple of questions, firstly what are the chances of Mikel Arteta getting into the Spain squad under Luis Aragones? Do you think he needs to move to a top-four team in order to break through or perhaps he would have more luck under a new national team coach? Also, I remember being really impressed by Ruben Cani when he was playing at Zaragoza, what has happened to him, why has he not settled at Villarreal? Thanks. Michael Knight (Everton & Villarreal fan!)

GUILLEM REPLIES: Thank-you very much Michael! I don’t think Arteta needs to go anywhere, but he won’t break into the national team under Aragones. He has picked a team that has eventually got the results that Spain needed, so I don’t think Aragones will use him in the European Championships. But he’s got to keep going because there will be a new coach soon and if it’s Vicente del Bosque I think he will give him a chance.

So he isn’t going to Euro 2008 unless there are some serious injury problems.