Arsenal left-back Nacho Monreal has been the subject of many rumours recently. He has been at the centre of a great deal of transfer speculation, with recent reports claiming that Spanish side Athletic Bilbao are currently pursuing the 29-year old.
At the same time, Arsenal seem determined to keep Monreal on for several more seasons, as he has clearly established himself as one of the top defenders in the Premier League, and the sides have been in contact over a contract extension, and may be close to agreeing on a new deal.
The Pamplona native recently sat down with the Arsenal Weekly podcast to discuss life in London, the transition from Spain to England, and how his Spanish-speaking teammates eased the difficult switch.
Everything feels right. I can say that I feel at home on and off the pitch.
If you don’t feel good off the pitch and in life in general, obviously you can’t give 100 per cent. However, at the moment, I love England, I love London and I love my team-mates so everything is positive.
One of the more critical elements in making a successful move between the top European leagues is learning the language, which is something that Monreal has worked very hard at.
When I arrived here I knew that the first thing I had to do was learn English because, if you want to speak to your team-mates, the staff and anyone here, you need to learn the language. It was difficult for me because I’m very bad with different languages but I am trying.
However, Arsène Wenger has assembled a core of Spanish-speaking players in the squad, and Monreal was able to turn to them for help, and their presence has greatly eased his move to England.
Mikel, Santi and Hector were very helpful for me because I didn’t speak English when I arrived, I didn’t understand anything, so every time I had a problem or didn’t understand something they explained it to me.
Even in the evenings, sometimes you have nothing to do and you can spend your time with them. They helped me a lot.
Monreal joined the club on the final day of the January 2013 transfer window in a move that was assembled very quickly. The Spaniard has also acknowledged that he did not even know of the club’s interest in him until the day of the transfer. His performances in 2013 and 2014 saw him leapfrog Kieran Gibbs as the first-choice left back, and he shows no signs of regressing anytime soon.
If reports are to be believed, Arsenal face significant competition in trying to lock Monreal down to a new contract, but for the moment he seems to be saying all the right things, and supporters may rightly feel upbeat at the club’s chances of retaining one of the club’s best buys of the past five years.
