Everton FC star Mikel Arteta so glad to be off the back pages this summer

SO often for Mikel Arteta, pre-season has meant one thing and one thing only.

Speculation.

The Spanish midfielder’s future has been discussed more than most during his six-year stay on Merseyside.

Talk of Premier League vultures, of European giants and of Everton goodbyes have dominated the media.

Not this year.

Having signed a five-year contract extension at Goodison Park last August, and at 29 well into the peak years of his career, Arteta is glad to see his name kept off the back pages this summer, and happy to concentrate instead on the new campaign, which begins in three weeks’ time.

Relaxing on Everton’s pre-season tour of the USA has not been easy for David Moyes’ players.

Warmth and sunshine may be vital components for most holidaymakers but, for professional athletes, being forced to train – and train hard – in such conditions is tough.

Arteta, however, believes Everton will feel the benefit of their American boot camp, and says it is nice to have a summer free of transfer talk for a change.

“To be honest, I wouldn’t criticise any part of our pre-season preparations in recent years,” he says.

“Last year we had a really good pre-season in terms of results, but then we had a terrible start, for example.

“But what I like about this pre-season is that we are not talking about transfers, about rumours, about this and that.

“Last year I think, mentally, everyone was waiting for two or three big players to decide their futures. There was talk of some players leaving – myself included – and it affected us.

“This year, we are not expecting anything like that. We are expecting to be as we are right now.”

‘);

tm.siteLife.daapi.getArticle(
“21-100252-29099611″,
function(article){
tm.siteLife.display.displayCommentCount(
article,
‘sitelife-commentsWidget-middle’,
false,
‘Comments’,
true,
false
);
}
);
})();//call anonymous function
//]]>