If form holds over the course of the next three years as it has over the past three, Nacho Monreal may go down as one of Arsène Wenger’s better signings. A Deadline Day deal in 2013, Monreal was originally thought to serve as depth for the often injured Kieran Gibbs.
After a rather short adjustment period that included a stint as a central defender, Monreal has been regularly keeping Gibbs out of the lineup for over a year and shows every sign of being one of the best left-backs in the Premier League.
The Spaniard recently revealed that his transfer from Malaga to Arsenal happened extremely quickly, and he only found about Wenger’s interest in bringing him to the club from future teammate Santi Cazorla.
I remember on January 31, I woke up, looked at my phone and has two [missed] calls from Santi. And I thought it was really strange, Santi calling me in the morning.
So I called him: ‘Santi, how are you? What’s happened? [he replied] Nacho, do you want to come to Arsenal? [I replied] What, pardon me? Yes, of course.’
The time that Monreal had from knowing nothing about a potential deal to signing his Arsenal contract was extremely short as well.
So the transfer was really quick. On one day I was training in the morning with Malaga and I didn’t know anything, and then 10 hours later I was signing my contract with Arsenal.
It was a really, really strange day for me, really happy of course, a good day for me.
Needless to say, the Gunners have been greatly improved by having Monreal in the squad, but his story shows that transfers can happen very quickly, even – or especially – for the players themselves.
Monreal will presumably be back in the Arsenal lineup this weekend as they take on West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns.
