It might have taken a couple of months to get a deal over the line but Mikel Merino says he had no doubts about joining Arsenal after speaking to Mikel Arteta and Edu.
The Spain international has moved to the Emirates in a deal worth up to £31.6 million having honed his craft over the last six years with Real Sociedad. Having spent a year at Newcastle United earlier in his career, he knows what to expect from the Premier League and can’t wait to get started.
In his first interview with the club, he explained: “It was an easy decision, because of the past years and how big the club is but also the ambition you could see, not only watching the games, but as well talking to Edu, talking to Mikel.
“When they explained the process they have been doing and the way they have been doing things, it gets easier for you to decide because you see the hunger, and the ambition of how they want to win.
“Me as a player, I want that in my career. I want to keep growing and winning is the main thing for me.”
As it turns out, Merino joins a long list of players to join the club who owned an Arsenal kit in their youth. He revealed his footballer father, Angel, also a Spain international gifted him a full strip not long after Arsene Wenger’s side had gone unbeaten.
“My father was a footballer as well and I used to have t-shirts of the teams that he played in, but I never used to have other teams’ shirts,” he recounted.
“One holiday my parents came home and gifted me a full Arsenal kit. I remember being all over the moon and wanting to take pictures as if I were a professional! I was there like the boss of the players!
“It’s funny how right now I’m achieving a dream of playing in a huge club and how life works, from those pictures from 20 years ago.”
It remains to be seen how Arteta deploys Merino – speculation is rife as to whether he’ll play as a six or an eight – either way, he promises Arsenal supporters he’ll battle hard in midfield.
“I want to fight for every ball and this is something that I learnt when I was really young,” he said.
“Maybe you can win it, or you won’t. I’m not promising I will win every duel, but what I can promise is that I will fight for every ball with 100 per cent.
“It’s always tough to talk about myself in those kinds of terms, but I think I’m a hard worker, I want to call myself a good teammate. I like to work for the team with or without the ball. I’m always thinking about the collective aspect of the game.”
With an attitude like that, we suspect our new number 23 will fit in just fine.
He said “duel” and i know he is a perfect Arteta’s player.
Welcome home Mikel!
Partey or Merino? Ricardo “I came here to play” Calafiori or Timber or Zinchenko? I am not Arteta.
These dilemmas are infinitely better than just a few years ago when we were having discussions involving the likes of Guendouzi, Cedric, Lichsteiner or Jenkinson.
We’ve come a LONG way…
You omit Kim ‘Peg-Leg’ Karlsson
I love how we all agreed to forget about Mustafi.
Wasn’t he the bad guy from the lion king?
Apparently he retired this this summer, having been a free agent for all of last season. So it seems the entire world of football just agreed to forget about Mustafi.
He wasn’t good enough for the Arsenal, but you’ve gotta love Jenko.
At one point, he was living the dream of all us Arsenal fans.
And the best part was, you could see it on his face.
Oh please – don’t put Zinny in same bracket as these others..
All of them at different times, hopefully! One fair criticism you might level at Arteta is he doesn’t rotate enough or use enough of his squad. Now he has more trusted options than ever. I’m looking forward to see how he uses those options.
So, we signed Ricardo “I came here to play” Calafiori and Mikel ”I will fight 100% for every ball”, what next, Darwin ”How I keep missing my shot on target” Nunez, or Victor ”I don’t want to have my salary reduced at all” Osimhen?
The relationship with Osimhen’s agency is broken, so that’s why there has been 0 buzz that we might get him. Liverpool would be suicidal to sell Nunez to us. It weakens them and gives us a profile we need that has the potential to be devastating. I would grab with both hands if offered.
In a world where an ok Bournemouth striker goes for £65m, this is a fucking deal and a half.
People might think it’s not the most sexy signing. But they said that about Trossard and he’s been one of our top performers.
I think Mikel will be the same. Reliable. Experienced. Calm. Consistent.
I’m actually getting really excited to see him play now.
I mean look at the man, he’s beautiful…this is absolutely a sexy signing.
Easy tiger!
Even a Ferrari needs a gearbox – this lad is gonna do just fine, thank you very, very much!
Merino wool never drive a Ferrari. He’s a Lamborghini man.
Fills a big time need. That LCM position has been patched together since Arteta arrived. Now we have a natural player for the role.
You can bleat all day about how merino is no sexy.
Merino: I’m not promising I will win every duel…
Arteta: *looks at Merino puzzled* Edu? can we still return him to Sociedad?
With those selective journalistic skills you’d be a sure-fire success within the Murdoch Empire.
Calling a completely fabricated conversation “journalism” is interesting! Not sure even Murdoch ever went that far?
As a matter of fact, Murdoch actually spreads Fabricated Bullshit brand butter over his Wonder White bread every morning for breakfast.
Pardon my ignorance as I avoid his media outlets like the plague. But then you contradict yourself because you called my supposed journalism “selective” which definitely isn’t the same as concocting utterly absurd dialogue. And to mention ME in the same breath as THAT guy! One is a foul, utterly immoral piece of slime that only ever spread misery on this earth, and the other is Rupert Murdoch!
He’s gone much farther than that
That reminds me of a meme I love :
Scientists : “Our discoveries are worthless when taken out of context.”
Journalists : “Scientists say their discoveries are worthless !!!”
I like the acquisition of Merino but will talk about the CF position anyway. Havertz is exactly like Giroud in what he brings to the team. The big difference is that the other positions have improved a lot. I do not like the pressure on Saka to score almost 20+ goals or Ode to score 18+.
One position at a time. Don’t open all the presents at once!
We have 3 days left to panic about the striker situation.
I don’t worry about Saka’s output and ability to handle pressure. I DO worry about the need for him to play every freaking game on top of internationals because we can’t find reasonable RW competition/depth. The plan to have Jesus back up Havertz and Saka is looking like wish-making right about now.
A couple of years back Trossard scored 3 for Brighton at Anfield from the right wing.
Ugh – we’ve just snaffled up a deal to rival the Great Trosser Steal and you’d rather have a whinge?
Again… ugh!
Couldn’t have said it better. Some people just aren’t happy unless they have something to be unhappy about.
Rapidly growing demographic apparently
It’s an interesting comparison to Giroud. I do see the similarities, but I think their tendencies are very different. Giroud was always looking to get on the end of things, he would link play because he wanted to score. Kai has a midfielder’s brain in a CF’s body, he looks to set up others and only shoots if a pass is not on. What I like about Kai is versatility. He can play an outright CF, a shadow striker, or a box to box LCM all in the same game. Giroud couldn’t do that. To your broader point though, we… Read more »
Valid points
I actually really like the idea of Darwin Nunez. He does the Martinelli role but can also be a CF. Good age. Not new to PL. Would benefit from Arsenal’s structure and would be a fantastic outlet for us.
i’m not a doctor, but: do you think he could learn where the goal stands?
Darwin Nunez missed a lot of shots, but I don’t care. I want us to recruit guys who underperform xG than over perform it for two main reasons. One, their value won’t be as high, so you’re buying low. Two, more important, variance means the goals will start flying in at some point because the opportunities will continue to be there. xG over performance is not reproducible, but xG generation is, and Darwin is an elite xG generator.
Inzaghi had a better understanding of the offside rules than Darwin Nunez. Don’t look at stats, watch him play. We would be giving Liverpool most of their money back on a player who isn’t worth half what they payed for him. His 1st touch and decision making are terrible. Would be a massive mistake.
How do you feel when he comes on the pitch against your team? He makes me nervous. That’s my gut check, and it matches with the numbers. I’ve seen him scuff shots but I’ve also seen him break away and score by himself (agianst Newcastle when down to 10 men, remember that?). Even if he’s not doing that he presents a huge problem for CBs becuase of his combination of size and speed. Rare profile.
Don’t rate him mate, Uruguay played to him in the summer, quick diagonal balls to him in the left wing position. It was all going good until he leant back and put the ball into the stands. He ended up in the stands fighting Colombian fans after one game. Wouldn’t want him near Arsenal.
I’m wondering if he isn’t assigned to man-mark Rodri out of the game when we play City.
I’m wondering if the addition of Mikel can help unlock Martinelli’s potential/quality again… let’s hope because, I consider myself a little concerned with his form. I’d be very suprised if he starts again on the weekend. Bossard, although a super-sub, is also a super starter and deserves to be starting off the back of his form last year and sub last weekend.
Honest question, what did you make of his non cebration
A little over the top posing for the cameras. It’s a team game.
Is cebration a cool new meme term for a brain explosion? If it wasn’t, it is now…
Yeah that was interesting. Was it cos he was grumpy?
It was his first touch, maybe he wasn’t warmed up enough for a full celebration and didn’t want to injure himself?
Broussard – Like a new signing. 😎
Now that I would pay good money to watch…
I love him already!
We definitely seem to be placing personality high on the list of our recruitment strategy
It’s definitely been a factor in all the signings the last few years. Look at the team spirit we have now as a direct result of that decision making process. Long may it continue!
I am excited by his arrival and what he can do for this top drawer team. I think a little bit of pee came out of me.
This bloke is proper – will give us some serious filth in the middle of the park and just does not quit… ever.
Not the fastest, not the most twinkle-toed… but a proper brick-wall when the shit hits the shovel.
I cannot wait to see him on the pitch for us!
He’s actually more twinkle toed than you might think from a 6’2” aerial and ground duel monster. Adept with deft faints resisting the press I think this is a very, very smart acquisition.
The Duel Master 😀
I bet the PGMOL approach of letting fouls go unpunished will change now we have Mikel23 in the team. Red cards will reappear.
Love that he already speaks such good English. It should help him integrate perfectly and is another bonus to what I already thought was an excellent signing.
Who is the back up to Odegard incase he gets injured or we need to rest him? Trossard? Havertz?
Ethan Nwaneri
Domestic cup games maybe, but if he is injured idk if he is premier league ready.
I applaud the persistence and fastidiousness of the person who is downvoting each of my posts within like 10 minutes of publishing. Top commitment levels! Here’s another one just to check if you’re still paying attention.
YES DO IT
Never knew I had such a big fan! I’ll just keep posting.
It’s the same Spud who always appears and down-votes every positive post that appears. Just looking for a trophy anywhere!
Better use surnames around the training ground from now on
Hopefully his security technically and defensively will allow Martinelli and Trossard to take more risks