Star import Mikel Arteta basks in reaching Goodison milestone

Oct 26 2007 COMMENT by Chris Beesley, Liverpool Daily Post

TIM CAHILL’S scoring return may have been the headline-grabbing story from last night’s UEFA Cup clash with Larissa but an expectant Goodison Park crowd cheered just as loud before the game when it was announced that Mikel Arteta would be making his 100th appearance in an Everton jersey.

Since arriving at the club in January 2005 to fill the boots of an influential playmaker of a very different ilk, the Real Madrid-bound Thomas Gravesen, Arteta has established himself as arguably the most successful overseas player in Everton’s history.

The Basque made his Goodison switch a permanent one during the summer that followed for the now ridiculously paltry fee of £2million – forget Kirkby this was Everton’s real ‘deal of the century.’

Arteta said after the game: “It was nice to win and 100 games is a good mark.

“I hope many more games will come. I want to achieve much more with the club so hopefully this is the start.”

The 1995 FA Cup win apart, Everton’s supporters were fed scraps by their ‘Dogs of War’ during the disappointing decade of the 1990s, twice having to avoid relegation on the final day of the season and sweating through several more near misses.

During this period though, Everton’s muscular battlers were able to get the better of their gifted but often fragile ‘Spice Boy’ rivals from across Stanley Park through tactics of near physical intimidation in Merseyside derbies.

Ahead of Saturday’s 206th clash between the two rivals, manager David Moyes declared that he now felt that his Everton team were now becoming more capable of matching their neighbours with good football and no doubt the presence of Arteta was a major factor in this statement.

Certainly until Tony Hibbert challenged Steven Gerrard for Liverpool’s first penalty, the hosts looked relatively comfortable.

One foreign recruit who cost more than twice as much as Arteta when he arrived at Everton back in October 1998, Ibrahima Bakayoko, made his first appearance back at Goodison since he was sold to Marseille barely nine months later following a disappointing solitary campaign in the Premier League.

Although he ultimately flopped under Walter Smith, the Ivory Coast striker was given a warm reception of applause by the home fans.

Like many overseas imports to Everton at the time, Bakayoko’s stay was only a fleeting one and there seemed little chance of him or his fellow recruits from continental leagues racking up a century of games in a royal blue shirt.

Marco Materazzi and Olivier Dacourt were hardly poor players – their subsequent careers in Serie A have gone on to prove that – but they too were joining Bakayoko towards the Goodison exit door at the end of the 1998/99 season.

Bakayoko toiled as a journeyman pro around Europe while Materazzi became a World Cup winner but for better or for worse, the international brigade seldom stuck around back then.

Having been with a footballing giant in Barcelona at a young age and having played for Paris St Germain in France and Rangers in Scotland, Arteta has already accumulated a wealth of experience across Europe but despite the regular interest supposedly being shown in him from suitors back home, he knows there probably won’t be another set of fans who idolise him the way in which the Evertonians do.

Spanish national team coach Luis Aragones may continue to overlook him but Arteta is a 21st Century throwback to the ‘School of Science’ days – I’m told the gait of his run even has similarities to that of Colin Harvey, the most creative member of Everton’s most lauded midfield combination, ‘The Holy Trinity’.

The affection in which Everton’s supporters hold Arteta is also mutual. He showed a bit of class off the pitch at the weekend when he signed an autograph through the passenger seat window of his car when stopped at the traffic lights outside Goodison after the derby defeat.

Last night might not have been Arteta’s most sparkling appearance for Everton to date – Leon Osman produced the most memorable example of technique with his finish for the side’s second goal – but there were still plenty of little gems when it came to flicks and fancy footwork to keep his admirers satisfied.

With Arteta having penned a new five-year extension to his contract during the close season in a similar deal to that signed by fellow midfielder Tim Cahill, Evertonians will already be licking their lips at the prospect of the San Sebastian-born magician, still only 25, reaching the 200-game landmark for the club.

There will certainly be plenty more moments to savour if he does and a more regular participation in European competition will help Arteta to reach the mark sooner.