Rangers interim boss Barry Ferguson said it was ‘brilliant’ to see his former teammate Mikel Arteta lead Arsenal to a famous Champions League win over Real Madrid.
Ferguson shared a dressing room with Arteta during the 2002/03 campaign when Rangers dominated Scottish football by winning the domestic Treble.
Arteta signed to Rangers for £6m from Barcelona and went on to make 68 appearances for the Ibrox giants, scoring 14 goals in the process.
The Spaniard is now manager of Arsenal and led his team to one of their greatest European nights as they beat Real Madrid 3-0 in the Champions League quarter-final first leg.
Declan Rice scored two tremendous free-kicks while Mikel Merino added a third for Arsenal with a superb first time finish with his left foot.
Ferguson acknowledges Arteta’s Arsenal win over Real Madrid
Ferguson was asked at his pre-Athletic Club press conference if he watched his old Rangers pal Arteta mastermind the triumph and whether seeing his old teammates do well gives him inspiration.
The Rangers interim manager was honest in his reply, stating: “I never even watched the game last night. You know what I was watching last night? I was watching Athletic Bilbao, that’s what I was watching.
“But I’ve seen the result late on last night. Look, he’s doing a brilliant job, what a result for them against clearly the favourites to win the Champions League.
“Do I take inspiration from that? Listen, it’s great to see ex-teammates in jobs where they’re under pressure to win games. Brilliant to see.
“But my only focus is on this club here and making sure that I get a reaction from what we’ve all seen on Saturday.”
Ferguson once shared his overriding memory of Arteta
Ferguson’s only season playing alongside Artea in midfield was Rangers’ Treble-winning campaign under Alex McLeish.
And in 2021, Ferguson admitted that he still owes Arteta for saving his bacon in a crucial match against Dundee at Dens Park.
Writing in his Daily Record column at the time, Ferguson said: “I don’t mind admitting, every time I see his (Arteta’s) face ever since I’ve been reminded of how much I still owe the guy until this day.
“I realise most Rangers fans will think about the penalty he scored against Dunfermline on the last day of the season, when we won that title on goal difference after a 6-1 win. But that’s not my overriding memory of the Spaniard.
“No, mine came a couple of weeks earlier at Dens Park when I thought I had just blown the title by missing two f****** penalties in one match!
“There was no room for error at that point in the season as Celtic were breathing down our necks at the top of the table. So when we went 2-1 down against Dundee we realised we were in a real spot of bother. Literally.
“I stepped up to take the first one and missed it. So when we were awarded with a second penalty I wanted to take the responsibility and make amends. And I missed that one too.
“With five minutes to go we were given a third and I remember thinking to myself, ‘I don’t think it’s really the best idea if I step up again. What the f*** is going on here?’.
“So I looked around to see if there were any other takers and I saw Mikel, basically saying, ‘Give it to me!’.
“Thankfully, he hit it perfectly and rescued a point. I remember sitting on the bus on the way home thinking that we might have just saved our own skins.
“And it turned out that the point we won that day was massively important. We wouldn’t have won the league without it.”
