Alex McLeish has revealed what happened behind the scenes when Rangers signed Mikel Arteta, who is now the Arsenal manager.
The Spaniard moved to Ibrox in 2002 for a staggering £6million fee, which was pretty high at that time.
Prior to this, he shone for Barcelona’s academy and also spent 18 months on loan at Paris Saint-Germain.
PSG wanted to keep him at the club beyond his spell, but he returned to Barcelona before joining Rangers.
Alex McLeish shares Dick Advocaat’s role in signing Mikel Arteta
McLeish was the manager when the Ibrox outfit signed the then-Spanish teenager for big money.
He had taken over the reins from Dick Advocaat, who was in charge from 1998 to 2001.
However, McLeish has revealed that he did not even see Arteta play before the club spent such a huge transfer fee on him.
In the early 2000s, there were no scouting platforms and limited scouting networks, which is why managers themselves had to look at players in action.
The former Gers boss was told by David Murray, who was the chairman, that Advocaat liked him and that the money was there to sign him.
So McLeish sent his assistant Andy Watson to take a look, and once he gave the green signal, Gers went ahead with the deal.
He told Mick McCarthy on The Managers Podcast: “I’d never seen him. David [Murray] called me and said: ‘Look, we’re going to have to juggle the finances a wee bit and we’ve got a kid on the books that Dick Advocaat had targeted. He’s a Barcelona player, but he’s on loan at the moment at Paris Saint-Germain.’
“So what’s his name? Mikel Arteta, I didn’t see that name. He was 19 at the time. It’s pending, he said, but if you want him, we can get the money to do it. £6million but you’ll need to get rid of somebody.
“I sent Andy Watson, my assistant, to go and see him because we’d never seen a video or anything. Andy went and I phoned him after the game, and he said: ‘He’s got great feet. He’s nimble, and he’s quick, and he’s a decent player’.”
How did Arteta do during his time at Rangers?
It did not take long for Arteta to establish himself as a first-team regular at Rangers, playing in the number 6 role.
He won the domestic treble in his first season, featuring in 27 of the 38 league games, scoring four goals, which included once against arch rivals Celtic on his Old Firm debut.
The following season was even better as he scored six goals in his first six games and was absolutely unplayable during that time.
The Spaniard fondly speaks about his time at Ibrox and believes he made the right decision as it was a transformative time in his career.
