In title decider, Mikel Arteta hopes to symbolically retire his master; Pep Guardiola sets out to render his protege an imposter
The introduction to the Pep Guardiola-Mikel Arteta action flick begins with a flashback set in the Catalan heartland at the stroke of the century. Guardiola, the midfield don of Barcelona, is watching a youth tournament with his understudy Xavi Hernandez. A skinny boy from the beaches with thick dark hair from the La Masia Academy impresses him. He whispers to his heir apparent, “You will retire me. This kid will retire both of us!” It turned half prophetic. Xavi became Barcelona’s rhyme and rhythm. The guy who was to retire them both, Mikel Arteta, waited futilely on the doors of one of football’s greatest empires and left disillusioned. But the bond of the La Masia brethren runs deep. Guardiola, by then the Czar of modern football coaching, had kept his ears firmly to the ground. He had heard that the boy anointed to retire them all, having ended a successful but not spectacular career, was nursing coaching ambitions. So, when Guardiola embarked into building the Manchester City dynasty, he checked with Arteta if he wanted …






