Mikel Merino to Arsenal? Former Newcastle midfielder has the standard and character to excel beneath Mikel Arteta | Soccer Information | Sky Sports activities

“Once I lose a duel, I’m upset,” yelled a livid Mikel Arteta at his gamers following an FA Cup loss to Nottingham Forest in 2022. The dressing-room scene, captured in All or Nothing, has been circulating once more amid Arsenal’s curiosity in Mikel Merino.

Arteta has after all succeeded in elevating the facet’s aggressive requirements within the intervening years. However the qualities talked about in that explosive dressing-down on the Metropolis Floor – dedication, focus, combativeness – stay his non-negotiables.

And they’re typified by Merino.

The 28-year-old, a European Championship winner with Spain this summer season, specialises in profitable duels. Actually, final season with Actual Sociedad, he received extra of them than every other participant in Europe’s top-five leagues. No one even acquired near his complete of 326.

• Inside Emile Smith Rowe’s transfer from Arsenal to Fulham
• Riccardo Calafiori deal exhibits Mikel Arteta’s defensive priorities
• Arsenal 2024/25 fixtures in full: Gunners begin towards Wolves
• The Premier League is again – stream with NOW​​​​​​​ | Get Sky Sports activities

It’s price noting that the next-highest participant on the listing, Newcastle’s Bruno Guimaraes, has additionally been a goal for Arsenal lately. Evidently, duel-winning skill is one thing the membership have been trying so as to add of their midfield.

It’s not all Merino presents, both.

Standing at 6ft 2ins, persevering with a theme of Arsenal concentrating on bodily imposing gamers following the additions of Kai Havertz, Declan Rice and, most lately, Riccardo Calafiori, Merino boasts formidable aerial energy in addition to a knack for stealing possession.

Julian Nagelsmann’s Germany discovered that out on the European Championship, when, following a late run into the field, one other of Merino’s emblems, he produced a towering header from Dani Olmo’s cross to clinch Spain’s semi-final spot within the penultimate minute of extra-time.

Merino, though not a daily starter for Luis de la Fuente’s facet, would end the event as one in all solely 4 gamers – together with Alvaro Morata, Lamine Yamal and Mikel Oyarzabal – to characteristic in all seven of Spain’s video games as they lifted the trophy.

“I believe that event was a very good reflection of him,” Miguel Flaño, a former team-mate at his boyhood membership Osasuna, tells Sky Sports activities.

“He’s used to beginning video games and being essential for his membership. However his position on the European Championship was one thing totally different. Though he wasn’t a starter, he confirmed a variety of humility, understanding he might nonetheless be necessary in one other means.

“And as we noticed, he was decisive, most of all along with his aim towards Germany but in addition within the video games when he did not rating. He simply places the workforce first and thinks about how he might help.”

Merino’s rise to prominence, albeit after troublesome spells with Borussia Dortmund and Newcastle, is not any shock to Flaño, or anybody who knew him again at Osasuna, the place, having damaged into the workforce at 18, he was a key determine of their promotion to Spain’s prime flight in 2016.

“He was the soul of the workforce, regardless of being very younger,” Alfredo Sanchez, a former Osasuna participant and assistant to Enrique Martin, the membership’s supervisor on the time, tells Sky Sports activities.

“He had large persona and, in soccer phrases, what you see from him now’s what he was then. Very energetic on his left foot, adaptable to totally different conditions, he can go, he can beat a person, he’s robust within the air, and he is aware of when to reach within the field.”

“Mikel was all the time a really full participant,” provides Flaño, one other graduate of the membership’s academy. “He’s technically superb and he’s tactically very clever as a result of he understands soccer so nicely.

“His aerial recreation is effective each in defensive and attacking set-pieces. He can actually make the distinction in these conditions.

“After which, by way of his mentality, he’s a boy who would not really feel stress and has the persona to step up in necessary video games.”

Merino confirmed his urge for food for the massive moments along with his winner towards Germany in Stuttgart, celebrated within the model of his father, Angel, who scored for Osasuna in a European tie on the identical floor 33 years earlier. But it surely has been obvious since his youth.

Certainly, it was solely due to a run of six targets in eight video games by Merino that Osasuna achieved their promotion in 2016, their midfield talisman serving to them go up via the play-offs regardless of having already agreed to affix Dortmund on the finish of the marketing campaign.

“He was unimaginable in these video games,” recollects Sanchez. “Decisive,” is the phrase utilized by Flaño. “That was the 12 months he exploded at Osasuna,” Flaño provides. “He attracted a variety of consideration.”

It didn’t work out for him at Dortmund, the place he struggled to win over Thomas Tuchel. Then, after becoming a member of Newcastle, a poorly-timed again damage stalled a vivid begin and left him under Jonjo Shelvey and Mohamed Diame in Rafael Benitez’s midfield pecking order.

However he’s definitely attracting consideration once more now.

Merino, wonderful over the course of a six-year spell at Actual Sociedad, throughout which he has been constant by way of his availability in addition to his stage of efficiency, has drawn curiosity from Barcelona and Atletico Madrid this summer season in addition to Arsenal.

“You must be superb in all sides of the sport to succeed in the extent the place you’ve got curiosity from so many huge groups,” says Sanchez.

“We’re speaking a few prime, prime participant.”

His position in Osasuna’s promotion-winning marketing campaign was because the extra attack-minded of two midfield pivots, inspired to make runs into the field.

“He had been enjoying extra like a No 10 earlier than we arrived on the membership however we felt he was uncomfortable there,” explains Sanchez. “We moved him again and located that position to be perfect for him.”

It’s the one he has subsequently fulfilled at Actual Sociedad, although, because the left-sided No 8 in a midfield three, which is extra in all probability extra indicative of how he could be used at Arsenal.

Arteta’s 4-3-3 system is much like Actual Sociedad’s and the presence of captain Martin Odegaard, a participant with whom Merino mixed to good impact in the course of the Norwegian’s mortgage spell from Actual Madrid in 2019/20, provides one other layer of familiarity.

The hope for Arsenal is that he might function a belated substitute for the departed Granit Xhaka, serving to to revive the risk and fluency on their left facet, along with Calafiori, whereas additionally permitting Rice to revert to his pure place at No 6.

Merino just isn’t a like-for-like substitute for Xhaka. He’s extra bodily and fewer technical. However his comparatively low passing accuracy charge of 77 per cent at Actual Sociedad could be defined, not less than partially, by an inclination to take dangers along with his distribution.

Merino, though comfy recycling possession and constructing the play slowly, prefers to direct the ball ahead, one thing which might assist Gabriel Martinelli, whose kind dipped with out Xhaka final time period and who’s handiest when operating onto passes in behind.

His character is probably going one other a part of his attraction to Arteta.

Merino’s footballing upbringing occurred in a area of Spain, Navarra, which borders Arteta’s native Basque Nation and shares most of the identical sporting ideas.

“An Osasuna participant is often a hard-working, aggressive profile,” explains Flaño, who frolicked teaching within the membership’s academy after his retirement as a participant.

“We would not essentially be sensible gamers who stand out, however we’re humble, dependable and constant, and that typically finally ends up paying off in the long term. Mikel has these qualities however, after all, the opposite necessary factor is that he is sensible as nicely.

“I believe Arteta transmits the identical issues in the way in which he addresses the press and among the feedback he makes.

“You’ll be able to really feel that he actually likes these type of gamers, hard-workers who get across the pitch, who’ve ardour, who usually are not showy or flashy however know methods to compete and handle the main points.”

Merino’s aggressive character made an impression on Sanchez too. “He will get a variety of yellow playing cards, as a result of he has a variety of coronary heart and he offers all the pieces,” he says. “However that, coupled along with his skill to defend and assault equally nicely, is how he has acquired the place he’s.”

It’s partly for that cause that those that know him are in little doubt about his potential to reach England, regardless of his first spell within the Premier League with Newcastle proving short-lived.

“I believe he was too younger when the Newcastle alternative got here,” says Sanchez. “Totally different tradition, totally different construction, totally different kick-off instances. He skilled all of it very younger.

“I see him now as being a lot better ready. He has much more expertise, much more video games beneath his belt each at membership stage and internationally, and his physique is stronger too.

“I might see him doing nicely wherever however I believe he can be good for Arsenal, due to their system and their model, with a variety of possession and a variety of runs into the field. I believe he would really like that.

“And keep in mind, we’re speaking a few prime participant who by no means hides.”

Arteta could have famous he’s not one to shirk a duel both.