Mikel Arteta has made two vows this summer: to love, honour and obey his long-term partner and former Miss Spain, Lorena Bernal, which is perfectly understandable, and to commit the next five years of his career to
Everton, which raised an eyebrow or two.
Both commitments involved hitches plus awkward conversations with the manager David Moyes but, with the exception of not being able to invite his team-mates to the wedding, neither is a source of regret to the Spanish midfielder.
The 28-year-old will officially become the highest paid player in Everton's history tomorrow when he signs a £75,000-a-week contract following months of speculation over his future. Arsenal or Barcelona were cited as possible destinations for the Spaniard, while Manchester City were also interested in inflating his bank balance. There was, Arteta insists, a genuine offer to leave Goodison Park for a club "with Champions League, or a club with a lot of good players" – and an opportunity to earn more money. "It wasn't for financial reasons. If that was the case I wouldn't be here now," he says. In the end, however, and in an all-too rare show of gratitude and loyalty, the Basque decided the grass was not greener elsewhere.
"This club has the ability to make you feel at home," Arteta said. "When you are at home and you are building a beautiful house and you are close to completing it, you want to enjoy that house. You don't want to move away, and that is how I felt about Everton. We have been working really hard and I, personally, have been complaining to the chairman about how we need to improve this and that. The club has done it and now is the moment to enjoy it. That was a big part. This is the moment we have been waiting for in the last four or five years.
"Plus, the manager and chairman were both saying they needed me for a big project, and not to walk away. The manager told me he has been in a similar situation and he decided to stay. So this was my time to acknowledge that they have been unbelievable with me, when I was injured or had other problems, and it was the moment for me to step forward and say: 'It is my time now.'"
As the summer passed without any white smoke being released from Goodison on Arteta's future, the former Barcelona youth graduate, a wandering star until he joined Moyes's side on loan in 2005, broke off from the club's pre-season tour of Australia to get married in Mallorca. It was a sure sign, the conspiracy theorists argued, of a star player having his employers over a barrel during contract negotiations. The truth was far simpler, although not for Arteta and his bride to be.
"This is something I feel really bad about," he admits. "I don't think it was right but, originally, we were due to be in Liverpool at that point in pre-season. I went to the gaffer last year and told him the place we wanted to get married in had only one date available. He said: 'What can you do? You only get married once in your life – you can have two days off.' That was fine. Seven months later the club changed its pre-season plans and decided to go on tour of Australia. There was no way I could go to and from Australia and get married in 48 hours. I was in big trouble now.
"I had to explain to the gaffer and he was very understanding and gave me six days off. It wasn't nice to leave my team-mates while they were all working hard in Australia, but I had arranged my wedding a year before and it was impossible to tell 250 guests to go home. My wife was really worried about it too, but the manager was fine and said he couldn't ruin the wedding for reasons that were not my fault. It happened, it had to happen, but it wasn't good. Tim [Cahill] was free [because of a post-World Cup holiday] and he was my best man. I was sad because I wanted players and staff at the wedding too, but we just couldn't do it."
Arteta may have the respect of his peers, the devotion of the Goodison faithful and a lucrative contract, but he would not have re-tied the knot with Everton had he any reservations about the club's ability to compete at the top. "I want to win things. I want to play in the Champions League and I want to make sure that when I leave this club they are in the top four at least," he stated. "I think I can achieve that here."
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