It sounds like something you might see on the Gogglebox reality show: Mikel Arteta and Santi Cazorla sat together on the sofa watching Premier League football.
Cazorla sets the scene for us in 2016: “I watched games with him when we were both injured,” he says. ‘He would take the remote control and freeze the action and I would say, “Why are you stopping it?”
‘I would rewind it another 30 seconds, pause it again and say, “What do you see? I would say, “I see the action frozen. I see nothing!”‘
Arteta would be pointing out a poorly positioned player, a defensive line that was too low or a movement that a team had made to open space.
“I looked at him and thought: this guy has already started coaching,” says Cazorla, not at all surprised that his friend is now in charge of Arsenal’s best chance of winning a league title in 20 years.
Santi Cazorla returns to the Oviedo of his childhood to try to promote to LaLiga
Cazorla spoke about his previous time playing alongside Mikel Arteta (left, in 2012) and how the Arsenal coach stopped the television to analyze the games with him
He told Mail Sport that promotion with Oviedo would be the best thing in his career.
Cazorla, 39, believes he still has a few drops left to squeeze out of his playing career
“With all that stopping and rewinding the game would have been over and we would only be in the 35th minute,” he laughs. “It’s a gift to see the things he sees, because I know I don’t focus on them.”
The odd couple would finally make it to the end of the matches because Cazorla developed the perfect strategy: ‘I would say yes to everything! He asked me and I said: “Yes, now you are absolutely right, press play and let’s see if we can finish watching the game.”
Cazorla is now 39 years old and back at his boyhood club, Oviedo, trying to win promotion to the first division, an achievement he believes would surpass everything else in his career.
He agreed to join them last summer, but only if the club paid him no more than a minimum wage and 10 percent of his shirt sales went directly to the academy.
“I would play for free but [league rules mean] You have to accept the minimum or you won’t be able to play at all. I want to help the club grow,” he says.
It has been rewarding and in a way I may not have imagined.
“Rival players remember my time in the national team and at Arsenal, they see me play in the second division and they thank me,” he says. ‘And at the slightest kick they give me, they ask for forgiveness. That never used to happen!’
Everyone wants his shirt too. ‘Unfortunately I can’t give them all because I only have two per game. They even write to me during the week now on Instagram. There is a moment when the game starts and I say “but you asked for five and I only have two.”
Cazorla agreed to sign for Oviedo as long as they do not pay him more than the minimum wage
When asked to look back on his career and pick a team of five players he has played with, he mentions Andrés Iniesta, Xavi, David Silva, Juan Riquelme and Mesut Ozil without giving it much thought.
‘We will not defend!’ he says. “They will have to take the ball away from us, but if they do, we will suffer.” “I like ball players and there are five that have impacted me.”
There is a young player at Arsenal who would not be out of place in that team. ‘Love [Martin] Odegaard,” says Cazorla. “I wanted to be an important player somewhere and at Arsenal I found it. I see myself in him because when I went to Arsenal I found a coach, Arsene Wenger, who had so much faith in me. The second season he named me captain almost before who knew how to say hello in English!’
He is also a fan of Declan Rice. “I saw him at West Ham and I loved him. It’s the typical box-to-box as they say in England. He reminds me of Aaron Ramsay when he was at Arsenal, a player who appears in so many parts of the pitch that sometimes you think: what is this guy doing here, when he should be there? But he has that engine.
Can this Odegaard-Rice-driven Arsenal win the league under Arteta? ‘Yes’, is Cazorla’s blunt response. “The year Leicester won the league, I think we went into the middle of the season with a seven-point lead. We lost it because of a lack of mentality. I think that’s what Mikel has changed.”
That mentality will be severely tested on Saturday against Wolves and the players will have to put the disappointment of their Champions League exit against Bayern Munich behind them.
European success also eluded Arsenal when Cazorla was there; Twice they were eliminated by the Germans. “Bayern again,” we always said after the draw. And if we didn’t get them, it was Barcelona or Monaco that year.”
If Arteta becomes the first manager since Wenger to lead Arsenal to a title, can Cazorla not take some of the credit? He confided this to Santi when he was first offered the chance to work with Pep Guardiola.
Cazorla and Arteta played together at Arsenal under Arsene Wenger
Cazorla is a big admirer of Arsenal’s midfield duo Martin Odegaard (forward) and Declan Rice (back).
Cazorla believes Arteta can guide Arsenal to the Premier League title this season
“No,” Cazorla laughs. ‘Mikel had to make the decision. We talked a little about it because he had just come back from an injury and was starting to feel good again. He said: “What do I do Santi, continue playing which is what I enjoy or take advantage of this opportunity to work as Pep’s assistant? There will be no better teacher for me.’
‘I told him that if the challenge excited him, he should accept it. It has worked well for him.’
Cazorla still has a few drops left to squeeze out of his playing career. Will you then dedicate yourself to training?
Speaking of another old friend, Xavi, he remembers playing for him when he coached Al Sadd in Qatar: “As a player, Xavi was very calm, he never raised his voice, and now!” says Cazorla again in brilliant storytelling mode.
“In my first game in Qatar we were losing at half-time and I saw him throw a boot at the board. He was shouting and cursing and I thought: someone has replaced Xavi with someone else!
‘I can’t see myself that way. But I wouldn’t have seen it like that either!’
‘He always had character, he was a leader and he spoke well and calmly. As a coach, the blood boils more and brings out the character in a different way.’
He feels sorry for his old friend who will be leaving at the end of the season. “He arrived in an extremely complicated time, with one of the worst economic situations in the history of Barcelona,” says Cazorla. “He won the league but it seems like it’s never enough.”
He feels sorry for his old friend and Barcelona coach, Xavi, who will leave at the end of the season.
Cazorla admitted: “The excitement of playing at home again takes away the aches and pains!”
All of this makes Cazorla think about his own return home, although he seems to enjoy it much more. Do you limp around the supermarket on days off because of the physical toll?
“No, because I don’t want people to see me limping,” he laughs. ‘The excitement of playing at home again takes away all the aches and pains!
‘The time I have left in the game I just want to enjoy it. It goes so fast it seems like yesterday I was here when I was young and now I’m 39 and at the end of my career, but every stage has something wonderful.’
It would be a great year to retire if he gets promotion from his boyhood club just as one of his best friends in football lifts the Premier League title.