David Bernstein is telling a story about the advice his future father-in-law gave him before he married his daughter. “He told me: ‘You can lose your wealth and win it back but you can only lose your reputation once.’”
The man who as chairman steered Manchester City from the third tier of English football to the Premier League, from Maine Road into what is now the Etihad Stadium, has no doubt the club will recover from the scandals that have enveloped it.
If City are relegated, they will come back. If players like Erling Haaland are forced to leave, there will be fresh heroes. If the owners from Abu Dhabi quit, new ones will be attracted by the club’s history and fanbase. However, whether Manchester City will ever regain its reputation is another question entirely. Pending an appeal, they stand condemned of blatantly subverting financial rules that were designed to ensure some semblance of fair play.
“We all believe in redemption and the chances of Manchester City winning back their reputation depend on how they handle things now and once the appeal is done,” Bernstein tells The i Paper.
David Bernstein has been a City supporter for 70 years (Photo: Action Images)
“If they hold their hands up and apologise, if the people who oversaw this debacle go and are replaced by others who will work within the rules, then they have a chance.”
The signs are not encouraging. In a leaked video to staff after the club was found guilty of inflating its revenue by more than £850m, City’s chief executive, Ferran Soriano, who is accused of presiding over six years of dummy contracts, fake sponsorship deals and hidden payments, insisted they would use all legal avenues to protect the club and seek compensation from what he termed a “Premier League conspiracy”.
“These are people who don’t resign easily,” says Bernstein. “They are going to fight it out. They come from the Donald Trump school of never back off, always strike back harder, never admit anything and drag it out for as long as possible. To use the word ‘conspiracy’ is desperate and Trumpian stuff.
“I knew there would be things coming out but when I read the report I was shocked by the extent of it. The case is subject to appeal, but these verdicts are damning in the extreme. The allegations could not be more serious with falsified documentation and falsified accounts on a massive scale. I am shocked by the cold-blooded premeditation of it all.
“Once they have been designated by the independent regulator as not being fit and proper people to run a football club, people have to resign. You can hardly be ‘fit and proper’ if, after the appeal, you’re convicted of calculated misdemeanours.
“My feeling is that City should have their titles taken away from them. The success they have had after the period that’s been investigated has been built on what has gone before. Our total record is tarnished and I include what was achieved after 2018 [which falls outside the Premier League inquiry].
Manchester City captain Roy Paul holds the FA Cup aloft in 1956 (Photo: Getty)
“And it is our record. I have been a City fan for 70 years; 5 May, 1956 was one of the great days of my life. Manchester City won the FA Cup on the day of my bar mitzvah.
“When we play Liverpool on Sunday, I want us to win. I will always support the team but I cannot any longer support the club until the consequences of this are dealt with.”
Two years ago Bernstein published We Were Really There, about City’s rise from the humiliation of relegation to the third division of English football.
“It is almost the complete reverse of 1998 because then you had a club that had for many years been neglected, which suffered from under-investment, appeared to be 50 years behind Manchester United, played in a run-down old stadium and did not have a proper training ground. It was failing badly on the pitch.
“This is everything in reverse; a club that has enjoyed success beyond belief and created wonderful facilities, owned by people who have invested not just in the club but in east Manchester.”
In Bernstein’s living room is a photograph of Queen Elizabeth examining a model of how the City of Manchester Stadium would be converted into a football venue after the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
Nine years later, Etihad Airways bought the naming rights to the stadium for £400m, which was 45 times their annual profit. The Liverpool owner, John W Henry, asked which bid had come second.
“A lot of people went along with this, closing their eyes, happy not to think too hard about how this was happening or how it was being funded.”
But hold on. City have not been accused of bribing referees like Barcelona. They have not bribed opposition players to throw games as Marseille did in the 1990s. Their money has helped transform east Manchester. The men from Abu Dhabi delivered in everything they said they would do. They were merely dishonest about how they would do it.
“I am afraid this is the road to perdition,” says Bernstein. “It means might and money are always right and, just because it has achieved some good things, you should allow the wealthy and powerful to get away with anything.
“Once that happens then society, let alone football, is finished.”
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My Sporting Life is The i Paper’s look behind the curtain at what drives sports stars to greatness.Ten years on from Leicester City’s stunning Premier League title win, Danny Simpson reflects on the season that changed his life for ever.
I thought I’d made it when I assisted Wayne Rooney
I probably acted like I did as well. You know, you start going out drinking and doing all sorts. I was a local lad from Manchester, and people started to notice who I was, and so I’d go out and enjoy myself, and yeah, probably liked it a bit too much.
Sir Alex Ferguson had to pull me into his office a couple of times. He gave me a few bollockings for sure. I look back now and think there’s no way I should’ve been doing that.
Simpson began his career at Manchester United and also played for Leicester, Newcastle United and Queens Park Rangers (Photo: Getty)
At the time, you think you know what’s best. What I know now, especially training with that calibre of player and the intensity of it every day, and I was sometimes enjoying it a bit too much off the field, I would’ve done things differently if I had my time again. But I know I’m not the first, I’m not the last and it’s an experience that I can pass onto younger players as well.
We used to laugh at Cristiano Ronaldo for having a private chef
Look who’s laughing now! He copped a fair bit of stick at Manchester United for that. Rio [Ferdinand] and the rest used to tease him relentlessly.
But he knew how to look after himself. That’s why he’s had the career he’s had. He’s the most complete player I’ve ever seen.
He would spend hours in the gym after training. Back then, we all knew how good he was. He was just obsessed with being the best.
James McClean gave me a good kicking
We used to get into a lot of fights. You can’t fight now, but you could back then. We’ve had a bit of banter since about fighting each other, because he’s a good boxer. He was a tough guy. He liked it, I liked it.
That was more of a direct competition, but in terms of someone that would pull onto my shoulder, Didier Drogba was a nightmare. I was really young at that point, early 20s I think.
He was so big and strong. I know he was a striker, but he’d still come onto me at right-back and try and pin me and stuff. So yeah, I always knew I was in for a battle with them two on the pitch.
I’m still in a group chat with the Leicester City boys
He considers former captain Wes Morgan, holding the trophy, a close friend (Photo: Getty)
It was called “Reunion 2026,” which has happened now, so we probably need to rename it. Maybe 2031, a 15-year reunion. We all meet up when we can.
Jamie Vardy still loves winding everyone up. I cried that night we won the league at Vardy’s house. I’m close to Wes Morgan, Riyad Mahrez as well. We get a game of padel in whenever he’s over here.
When you go through something like that, you’re bonded for life. But I always want to beat him. He’s the most competitive person you’ll ever meet in your life.
I cried when I thought my career was over
I got told I’d be out for about seven months. I didn’t have a club, and I tore a tendon off my hip bone training at Leicester. I had a free transfer lined up and ready to go.
I was probably a week away from going to a new club, and then played in that practice match, and it was nothing, a bit of a lazy tackle as well. The way I did it was actually technically wrong. I went in with the wrong foot for a tackle and then it pinged.
And yeah, I was out for about seven months, and then obviously you’re not going to get signed, so for seven months there was no contract. I wasn’t getting paid. There was no club to rehab me. Leicester helped as much as they could because I wasn’t their player, and the physios have got a lot to do. St George’s Park and the PFA helped, and I came back.
Claudio Ranieri and I didn’t see eye to eye at first
Danny Simpson famously won the Premier League with Leicester City in 2016 (Photo: Getty)
It wasn’t a great start, I’ll be honest. We didn’t have the greatest of first meetings. He told me I could leave, which obviously I didn’t agree with, and I said I wanted to fight for my place at least until January.
So he put me in the reserves for pre-season and the first six weeks of the season, I’d get to train some times with the first team, and I just kept my head down and worked hard. The next meeting we had was him saying he got it wrong and that he thought I could help the team and help him. So I made him eat his words a little bit.
Fortunately for me, the next game I started and I never looked back. But for him to apologise, it takes a bigger person to do that in life, to admit he got that call wrong. Then I went from strength to strength with him and learned tactically a lot from him.
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The Friedkin Group value Everton at around £800m, with at least two groups showing interest in the club after confirmation the owners are looking to sell.
A statement on Friday confirmed TFG have retained investment bank Moelis and Company to find possible buyers for the club just two years after their full takeover. While some senior figures inside Everton were left surprised by the timing of the announcement, it was hardly a shock to sources who move in the world of football takeovers.
“TFG’s intentions have been clear for a long time,” one said. Reports in September that they were open to fresh investment in the club were part of a “fishing expedition” for potential buyers that had been partially successful, they claimed.
Sources believe a consortium mainly backed by US private equity is the most likely buyer of the club. Amanda Staveley’s PCP Capital Partners have previously distanced themselves from any auction for Everton, despite coming close to buying the club in 2023.
While nothing appears to be imminent in terms of a sale, the hope is that the statement gives Everton supporters and those who work at the club “clarity” on TFG’s intentions and helps to expedite a takeover. But with some big decisions on the horizon – not least a decision on David Moyes’ future – it leaves some uncertainty at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Why now?
Dan and Ryan Friedkin, seen here with golfer and Evertonian Tommy Fleetwood, have kept a low profile on Merseyside (Photo: Getty)
In short, TFG have done their sums. Twelve months ago The i Paper was told that the intention was to get Everton competing with the likes of Aston Villa and Newcastle as “best of the rest” in the Premier League. From there increased revenue from the stadium and smart recruitment would bridge the gap to the very top.
But they appear to have had an epiphany about English football and, in particular, rising transfer fees. Having invested close to £500m to put the club on a stable financial footing, there is now no great appetite to inject the same again with no guarantee that it gets them closer to Europe.
Throw in the fact that Uefa rules would prevent Everton and Roma from competing in the same European competition – with suspicions they favour the Serie A club – and Dan and Ryan Friedkin’s lack of public profile on Merseyside and it’s no great surprise this announcement has come.
Sources who know the Friedkins believe criticism of them on Merseyside after the disastrous end to the summer transfer window will have stung and will have played a part in this decision.
“They like to be popular,” one source who has worked with them told The i Paper. “They are very, very aware of what the fans are saying about them.”
It’s also a good time to attract investment according to those in the know. “There’s a lot of US private equity looking to get into the Premier League at the moment,” one top flight executive told The i Paper.
“With the new stadium, the history and the potential it really shouldn’t be difficult for Everton to find a buyer if they’re realistic about the valuation.”
How much do they want for it?
It’s understood that TFG’s valuation is close to £800m – which would represent a doubling of the £400m they bought it for. The club has around £380m of long-term debt although sources stress that is on “manageable” terms and would be factored into any deal.
“Everton are in decent shape for investment. Revenue was around £200m the last set of accounts, wages to revenue is around 75-80 per cent and I’d estimate the enterprise value to be somewhere between £700-750million,” football finance expert Professor Rob Wilson told The i Paper.
“Given the history, new stadium, positioning and financial results £800m feels like a fair valuation. A trophy asset hunter would pay the top end of that – if someone is looking for a return on investment it’ll be closer to £700m.”
Who could buy Everton?
It is understood at least two groups have shown an interest in Everton, with US-based consortiums the most likely buyer
The i Paper understands from club sources that there has been communication with Staveley’s PCP Capital Partners in recent weeks but sources close to the former Newcastle co-owner have denied they have any intention of buying Everton given their ongoing interest in West Ham.
PCP battled TFG for control of the club when Farhad Moshiri put the Toffees on the market two years ago but ultimately decided the deal “did not make financial sense”.
What does it mean for David Moyes?
Moyes has led Everton to an unbeaten start this season despite a tricky summer (Photo: Getty)
Over the summer there were plenty inside the club who thought this would be Moyes’s last season at Everton. Given the friction with the club’s transfer committee over some targets – Moyes had knocked back some suggestions that he didn’t feel were the right fit for the Premier League – it felt like his days were numbered. He didn’t do any media in the close season and fan sentiment seemed to be turning against him.
Since then things have shifted considerably. Moyes handled the disappointment of the final weeks of the summer transfer window impeccably – memorably calling himself an “Evertonian” when asked whether he could empathise with fan frustration at the transfer window – and the team have made an unbeaten start to the season. He seems to be revelling in the underdog status and creating a siege mentality.
Moyes was the continuity candidate when TFG first took over, viewed as a steady hand at the tiller as the club stabilised off the pitch. Perhaps originally the idea was to find a more “progressive” coach in a few years but a potential sale means that is now a non-starter.
It feels like the chances of him staying have improved considerably. If there is no buyer before the end of the season, a short-term extension makes sense – provided Moyes is amenable to it.
How long will the process take?
TFG have signposted to the market that they want to sell so will be hoping for things to move quickly. But they made it clear in their statement that they will only sell to “parties who we strongly believe will be the right stewards to take the club forward and build on the momentum that has been established”.
A possible complication is that a number of other Premier League clubs appear to be on the market at the moment.
If a buyer can be found quickly, a deal could be wrapped up before the New Year. But that feels unrealistic.
What does it mean for January transfers?
TFG have promised to “support the club in all ways necessary to achieve success on the pitch”. But anyone hoping for big signings in January is likely to be disappointed.
Sources told The i Paper that TFG are in “phase two” of their ownership of the club – where effectively Everton needs to be run on a sustainable basis. The sale of Iliman Ndiaye was agreed to fund signings and comply with Premier League financial rules. It created financial headroom to bring in a striker – a move that ultimately fell through – so there is the possibility of at least one incoming.
But until the future of the club is resolved, big money moves seem unlikely.
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CITY FOOTBALL ACADEMY — When Manchester City started the first in-house Enzo Maresca interview since the guilty verdict with, “what have you been up to in the international break?”, not much was expected from the Italian’s first press conference on the subject.
In the face of the biggest cheating scandal in British footballing history, City have remained masters at the art of deflection. In their moribund questioning of Maresca, they keep referring to the “noise” around the club.
Maresca himself toed the party line as he faced the media on Friday, a press auditorium three times as busy as any other City pre-match press conference in recent memory. The rest of what he said was, however, rather more illuminating than expected. With one or two exceptions…
“Absolutely not,” he began with an insistence on the former glories. “The last time I was here, from the treble season, I know the effort from the players, the club, the manager. I know the effort that the club put into achieve that target so I don’t have any doubt about that.”
No regrets about taking the job
Whether we believe him or not on this matter is up for debate. Maresca, however, feels he made the right call in the summer to rejoin City, even given the uncertain future they face now.
His confidence in the final clause echoed through the state-of-the-art halls at City Football Academy.
“I trust the club, because I trust the people and this is also the reason why I joined the club,” he said. “There is not another club in the world where I would like to be. I’m very happy to be, I’m very proud.
“I understand why most of you are here but the only thing I can say is the reason why I joined the club is that I completely trust the club, all the organisation. I don’t have any doubts about that. I spoke with the club… and probably the right moment to speak about that is when we win the appeal.”
Business as usual for the players
Erling Haaland arrives at City training on Thursday with a thumbs up (Photo: PA)
With no relegation clauses in their contracts, it is understood that there is at least some uncertainty among the playing staff over their futures.
Some who picked City over other elite Premier League clubs must be questioning their sanity? Not according to Maresca, who used experience from being a player during the Calciopoli scandal in Italy to explain how young footballers go about dealing with such seismic events.
“The players are 20, 25 years old. They are just thinking how they can train, how they can get better and thinking about the games,” he said.
“We completely understand the seriousness of the situation. We understand, the players understand, but it’s our duty and our job to try to control the noise. The manager and the players are focused to win games, not about something different.”
He did not address the charges before taking the job
Probably something of an oversight, Enzo. It just never came up.
“No,” Maresca said when asked if the topic was discussed when penning a multi-million-pound contract. “It wasn’t a problem for the club in that time and they are thinking in an honest way. I think they are convinced that at the end we’re going to win the appeal.”
Pep will be in attendance next week
The troops are rallying. Pep Guardiola knows his legacy is at stake, so is doubling down, and will attend the Paris Saint-Germain match at the Etihad next week, Maresca confirmed.
Probably sat next to his chairman, who he also insists has done no wrong.
“The last time was after the Man United game when I spoke to Pep but I know that he’s coming on Tuesday,” Maresca said. “It’s always a pleasure. After 10 years here, he can come any time he wants – not just for a game or training session. It will be nice for him and for the fans.”
Maresca faces the media before City’s trip to Anfield on Sunday (Photo: PA)
What remains unanswered – whether he will stick around
There was an element of gallows humour in Maresca’s response to questions over whether he would stay if City are relegated, or worse.
It is almost impossible to hypothesise, given the wide range of punishments City face. Maresca nonetheless passed up the opportunity to nail his colours to the mast.
“I won the Championship with Leicester,” Maresca added. “So in case we are in League One we will see. But we are thinking about something we don’t know.
“I would like to speak about this situation when we win the appeal. Now it makes no sense to speak about anything because I don’t have any information.”
It appears Maresca has some pre-bedtime reading to do over the next few weeks.
Not many of us completely comprehend the complexity of the case. The manager of Manchester City, however, seems rather worryingly short of any idea.
“I trust the club because I know the people, but I promise you that my focus is just about football,” he said. “I’m not thinking about different things. I don’t understand many things, about different things, so I just focus on what I can control – the football side.”
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Newcastle United believe they have built the fastest attack in the Premier League – they just haven’t been able to show it yet.
One word dominated recruitment as Newcastle pressed the reset button this summer: pace. Having plotted Premier League trends that suggest speed is the X factor for teams that want to be Champions League insurgents, Newcastle re-constructed their front three with that in mind.
In Will Osula, Anthony Elanga and Matias Fernandez-Pardo, they believe they have a trio that will be a “nightmare” for Premier League defences to play against. But with Osula and Elanga still recovering from long-term injuries, it is down to £51m signing Fernandez-Pardo to get Newcastle among the Premier League’s early front runners.
“We love him,” is how one insider sums up his early impact at St James’ Park. That view is backed up by his manager Matthias Jaissle, who believes he has “everything” to be a top striker.
But the Belgium international is in some ways typical of what Jaissle calls the “brave journey” that Newcastle are on. The 21-year-old does not fit the typical profile of a Premier League striker and with a 0.05 xG in three games so far, there is work to do in marrying his potential with a prolific strike rate.
Some of that is down to the way Newcastle are playing. Privately Jaissle admits they are the start of a process that will take time and is complicated by the youth of this new-look squad. He has been happy with the way his team have pressed so far this season – but frustrated by what they have done when they’ve won the ball in key areas. Too many unforced errors have made their early displays look scrappy.
Fernandez-Pardo’s relentless presses against Hull did not yield results (Photo: Getty)
Fernandez-Pardo is one of the players that has disadvantaged. His relentless press against Hull didn’t produce any goalscoring chances but it did stretch the Tigers defence to the point where his teammates benefited. “Unselfish” is how one insider sums up that performance.
There is more to make Newcastle feel confident about his early contribution, with insiders speaking of Fernandez-Pardo’s numbers being “off the charts” in his first three Premier League games.
In terms of intensity, speed and acceleration, they believe he is in a different tier to most of his Premier League peers. But what really sets him apart, sources say, is “his ability to do it time and time and time again” without relenting.
In that way he’s seen as similar to Anthony Gordon, although his numbers so far suggest he is actually quicker than the England international.
“He’s a player that other teams won’t like playing against” is the succinct view of one figure familiar with his work.
Like everything at Newcastle this season, Fernandez-Pardo will take time. The Magpies wanted to make him their first signing of the summer – in the end he turned out to be their last one.
Tracked by some of the biggest clubs in the world – Atletico Madrid and Liverpool were known admirers – Newcastle had to bide their time to get him. There was “total buy-in” in early recruitment meetings but wariness about whether they could get a “dream target” in a summer when forwards were at a premium.
In the end their persistence (“We were just trying to find ways to get him all summer,” one insider says) paid off. What struck recruitment figures was just how much he wanted to move to Newcastle, with insiders speaking of a “confident, ambitious lad” who ticked every box for a potential “2.0” signing.
But it also means there needs to be patience. He had no pre-season and has just spent three weeks with Belgium, rarely playing or even training. “He’s a young lad, a really young lad and it’s part of the brave way, the brave journey we’re taking here,” Jaissle said on Thursday.
One of the fastest forwards in the Premier League might not hit the ground running. But the message is clear – he will be worth the wait.
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Mikel Arteta, who spent three years under Pep Guardiola at The Etihad from 2016 to 2019 overlapping the period when much of the rule-breaking was perpetrated – is sitting bolt upright at his desk in the office of Arsenal’s London Colney training ground, raring to get started.
“This is late for me,” says the 44-year-old Spaniard.
Clad immaculately in his tangerine and Gunners-red club tracksuit, he’s perched in front of what looks like a police crime scene investigation room.
Post-it notes pepper the noticeboard, while an intricate web of handwritten formula, snaking arrows, and forensically executed bullet points inspire images of Russell Crowe wrestling with the Nash equilibrium in A Beautiful Mind.
The graphical representation of Bukayo Saka’s wing threat, perhaps?
Or maybe a defence unlocking projection of Erling Haaland’s future role for the current Premier League champions, should the free-scoring Viking decide to row south from Manchester.
Mikel Arteta refused to say whether he would be interested in Man City’s Erling Haaland, should the Norwegian leave following his club’s punishment for rule-breaking (Photo: Getty)
Would Arteta sign the Norwegian hitman if he becomes available, when his tarnished former employers’ punishment eventually drops?
He laughs off the impertinence of such a suggestion like a man who has been relentlessly parrying media barbs ever since he took over the reins at The Emirates almost seven years ago.
“You know I can’t respond to any of those questions,” he says, side stepping the enquiry as deftly as he used to dodge tackles as a player for his current employers during Arsene Wenger’s sunset seasons.
The brief today is strictly no Manchester City questions and no mention of anything that might deliver his rivals even the slightest indication of his masterplan to maintain Arsenal’s dominance, a prospect now surely even more palpable in the wake of City’s seemingly inevitable demise.
Very much on the table for a manager who has long adhered to the marginal gains theory popularised by Dave Brailsford and Dr Steve Peters in their work with British cycling, Mikel Arteta is here primarily to discuss his partnership with Bupa’s genome testing What You Are Made Of campaign.
It involves testing participants’ DNA to give them a heads up on any current and potential biological issues they might be facing, essentially handing them power to make better future decisions. Arteta did the test – the results are below – and it is a philosophy that chimes seamlessly with his ethos of perpetually striving for progress.
It is this obsession with progression that has so far garnered Arteta eight trophies as a player with Paris Saint-Germain, Rangers and Arsenal, followed by five as a manager with Arsenal and a further seven as Pep Guardiola’s right-hand man at Manchester City. Unless they’re chalked off.
“I don’t like to use the word obsession,” says Arteta, whose playing career took off at Paris Saint-Germain in 2001 after he failed to break into Barcelona’s all conquering noughties midfield.
“I prefer to use the word passion. That passion and drive that you have to be the best version of yourself for yourself, and for the club.
“It’s about leading by example. It has to start with you. This job is so emotional and so random, that you need to grab the bull by the horns and be the leader.
“If people see Mikel Arteta and they see that he’s in pain or he is tired or he’s not sleeping, then that is not the best version that I can give.
“This position demands a lot of passion and to deliver that passion I have to be the best I can physically and mentally be.”
Despite his occasionally irritable press conference demeanour, especially after losses to his local rivals Tottenham – for full transparency, I’m an Spurs season ticket holder – Arteta insists that he’s impervious to criticism.
“I don’t use the word pressure because I relate to the level of passion people have for the game. That same passion that I have had since I was two years old. That’s what drives me to success for the club, the staff, the players, our supporters.
“I don’t call that pressure. You talk about people screaming and shouting and experiencing those emotions that we have helped create. That’s not pressure. That’s a privilege.”
Whether Arteta has to melt his Manchester City medals or not, it’s undisputable that winning is in his DNA, a fact that he attributes to his ability to assimilate culturally as well as athletically.
“I’ve taken so much from all the different cultures, countries and people I’ve experienced,” says San Sebastian-born Arteta, who gained British citizenship in 2010.
“I started in San Sebastian, then I went to Barcelona, then to Paris, then Glasgow, then back to San Sebastian, then to Liverpool and Manchester and London; and in all of those places I’ve been open to completely different ways of thinking.
“I’ve learnt different languages, I’ve inherited things from their cultures, other ideas, other methodologies and I’ve been adaptable to whatever context has been thrown at me.”
Arteta (centre) broke into his first senior team at Paris Saint-Germain in 2001 (Photo: Getty)
There have been mistakes too, most notably his decision to return to Real Sociedad from Rangers in 2004, sparked by his parents’ divorce.
Haunted that his desire to pursue his football dream might have contributed to his family’s turmoil, he returned to his hometown the season after winning the Scottish championship with the Glasgow giants, and it, “definitely was the wrong decision.”
“I thought that being closer to my family and closer to my city and going back was going to resolve a lot of issues, but it was a disaster, personally and professionally.
“I stepped back. I wasn’t playing and I didn’t enjoy not feeling part of things but in the end, it turned out to be the best decision that I made in my whole career because I realised how tough it was when you don’t feel important when you don’t play and how much I loved the game.
“I realised I made a naïve decision that at the time I thought could have ruined my career, but it actually turned out to be the best thing I did, in that it helped me make much better decisions in the future.”
One decision taken out of Arteta’s hands was his flirtation with Fabio Capello’s England team around the 2010 World Cup.
Aware that Spain’s World Cup-winning midfield was overflowing with generational talents including Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Cesc Fabregas and his old schoolfriend Xabi Alonso, Arteta threw his hat into the ring for a Three Lions call up only to be thwarted by an obscure Fifa rule which surfaced because he’d played for his birth country’s Under-16 and Under-17 sides. But he’s phlegmatic about the missed opportunity.
“I was very conscious of the situation I had with the Spanish team and the amount of talent that was there,” he said, “so yes, we talked about the possibility and I would have done it, but the rules at the time were different so they wouldn’t allow me to do it.
“But it was a great experience at least to test myself about how I was feeling about the country and whether I would have done it or not. And the very honest answer, is yes, I would have done it.”
Arteta may not have ever pulled on the Three Lions jersey, but he has sought advice from one the nation’s most celebrated performers, Hollywood star and Arsenal fan Tom Hiddleston, who interviewed him for the club’s website shortly after the title triumph in May.
“I’m always fascinated to learn from other industries, and because there is no element of competition, we can be fully transparent about our jobs and learn from each other,” Arteta adds.
“I was fascinated to hear from Tom about how a set is put together and how he goes about the process of soaking up the character he is playing and becoming someone else and then delivering that performance in a way that emotionally connects with his audience.
“I loved hearing about how all the elements surround him, the scripts, the design, the costumes, come together to connect with his audience. Like some chefs that I’ve also spoken to I’ve found that there are a lot of similarities in our businesses, but no, I don’t have any Hollywood ambitions.”
Unlike Arteta’s wife of sixteen years, Argentina born former Miss World finalist and actress Lorena Bernal, who has appeared in CSI: Miami.
The couple met in a San Sebastian nightclub in 2002 and now share three sons, 17-year-old Arsenal youth player Gabriel, 14-year-old Daniel, and Oliver, 11.
“Lorena and my family are the foundation of everything,” says Arteta, who lives in a £7.5 million, six-bedroom mansion in north London.
“If you are able to create the right environment with your family, you can create anything that you want with your life. Without that, I don’t think it’s possible.
Arteta with his wife Lorena Bernal, who the Arsenal manager says is the ‘foundation of everything’ (Photo: Getty)
“I feel extremely grateful and proud of what we have created. From my side, being able to without any restriction fulfil a dream and a passion that I have, but from their side as well, to make sure that they are looked after and they have in their lives the importance and the credit that they deserve to be able to do what they want to do.”
The future for Arteta, regardless of the sanctions eventually prescribed to rivals Manchester City, is, he hopes, more of the same.
“I want to go through those emotions that we had in May many, many, many more times in my career and I want to do it not only by winning, but by winning in a certain way and with the people that I want beside me.
“And that winning mentality, that winning DNA, has to be something that you build every day and that you make part of the culture.
“And that means having everyone on board, the players, the staff, the owner, the board, the fans in the stadium. You all need to all feel and breathe that every day.”
As for Arteta’s Bupa test results, they revealed that he has an increased genetic risk of coeliac disease and lactose intolerance, but no current predisposition to anything more life-threatening.
“People ask, ‘weren’t you worried that it might reveal something more serious?’ but, no, I wasn’t scared,” he said.
“I was 100 per cent convinced I wanted to know, because that way I can make conscious decisions, and I can be on top of everything, which I love to do. What I took from it, is, ‘now I have this information, what can I do better?’
So, any advice for the faltering team in white at the other end of the Seven Sisters Road?
“I can’t help you with that, I’m afraid,” he says breaking into a broad grin. “I’ve got enough in my own garden, thank you.”
Mikel Arteta is supporting Bupa’s What You’re Made of Campaign
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The yellow cat eyes were the first giveaway. Carl Lewis first suspected Ben Johnson would cheat him out of gold at Seoul 1988 in a fleeting glance as they waited for the bang of the 100m pistol. The second clue came when the Canadian ran his race in 9.79 seconds. It was a world record fuelled by anabolic steroids. Much as we are discovering about Manchester City’s gluttony of success: if it looked too good to be true, it probably was.
Sport is littered with contested histories. If you squint closely at photos of Vincent Kompany wafting the Premier League trophy above his head, you can just make out the shape of Lance Armstrong sprawled on a chaise longue in front of seven sullied yellow jerseys. What was real, and what was a shameful lie? Every club will have reacted to the revelations about City’s alleged financial doping with the same incredulity and what-ifs.
For Tottenham Hotspur, the verdict – City guilty of all but one of 115 charges – comes at a moment when the pain is most acute. Bottom of the table, their days of flying within City’s orbit are gone. Four times Spurs missed out on the Champions League while finishing behind them. They lost a League Cup final.
But the impact is more profound than missing out on trophies, European places or prize money. At Tottenham, in particular, operating in the ecosystem Sheikh Mansour built has prompted introspection bordering on an existential crisis.
Mauricio Pochettino had a starting XI worth just £98m which twice challenged for the title. Because neither season ended with silverware, they were roundly ridiculed. Spurs were harangued and heckled and harried until that under that pressure, the purse strings finally burst. Having spent upwards of £300m, Roberto De Zerbi’s team are winless and facing up to the prospect of another relegation battle.
That is not to say Spurs can blame other clubs for their own mess. The market is skewed, the wages stratospheric and still current problems could have been avoided with smarter decisions. Nobody forced them to spend £60m on Tanguy Ndombele. It was not Sheikh Mansour who fired Pochettino, or veered aimlessly between Jose Mourinho, Nuno, Antonio Conte, Ange Postecoglou, Thomas Frank and for a fleeting moment, Igor Tudor. Daniel Levy and Vinai Venkatesham have made questionable appointments, sackings and signings of their own volition.
Yet if you tilt your head one way, Tottenham largely operated on an ethically sound, financially prudent model. And somehow, some way, they matched the oligarchs and oil barons and very nearly toppled them. Tilt to the other side and Levy never had the requisite ambition to turn Spurs into a super-club in their own right.
In 2017, when the then chairman oversaw a summer without a single signing, he made a visit to New York during which he was invited to ring the opening bell at the Nasdaq stock exchange in Times Square. He used that public appearance to deride the “unsustainable” spending of other teams and said he would always seek to run the club in a more “appropriate” way.
As the Premier League continued to eat itself, that in itself became unsustainable. In the five years leading up to this summer Spurs became one of the biggest spenders.
That is the double-edged nature of City’s rule-breaking. On the one hand, the extent of the damage is clear to the naked eye. At the same time, the sheer scale of it is impossible to measure. The identity crises sparked at clubs like Tottenham will never be written into any legal challenge, but they are as real as any financial compensation City’s rivals may seek.
There is an obvious irony, in that at surface level the relationship with City is stronger than ever. Tottenham hired Rafi Moersen from City Football Group as director of football operations, a move which helped deliver the signings of Omar Marmoush and Savio. Marmoush was such a good deal, in fact, that his price tag fortuitously saved City having to play Frankfurt a sell-on fee. Gone are the days when Manchester City managers feel they have license to dismiss Tottenham as “the Harry Kane team”.
Given what we know now, the shortcomings or otherwise of the Harry Kane team have to be cast in a whole new light. Lewis was only beaten by Johnson by a tenth of a second. City blew the competition out of the water.
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