For two years, Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola played at the same club. For four years, they were coaching colleagues. Now, they're equals – at least in the fire of a title race in the Premier League.
Their educations have run parallel, a decade or so apart: La Masia upbringings, with genial gentlemen of the Premier League providing the spark for them to realise coaching was the life for them (Bobby Robson for Pep, Arsene Wenger for Mikel). Yet the differences are stark, with Guardiola leaving Barcelona on his terms; Mikel Arteta never getting to dictate his own path. The Arsenal boss has been noted as more pragmatic than his idealist idol: such a club career – no caps for Spain, settling in Scotland, before Everton and finally, leading a disjointed Gunners side – may give one a more gritty worldview than life under Johan Cruyff.
Yet one of the biggest differences between the two managers has seldom been noticed. Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola both favour the same kind of player Pep Guardiola's recruitment record is perhaps the greatest the sport has ever seen. There are so few misses when it comes to his signings, yet it all stems from a player he never actually signed himself.
Andres Iniesta could do it all: slalom through backlines, control play from deep, act as a false nine or even hold width. Quoted by Pep as the player who “opened his eyes tactically” , the midfielder was his first 'generalist': a player he asked to fulfil whatever job needed doing in whatever.