Mikel Arteta, Xabi Alonso and Andoni Iraola will face off as Premier League managers this week, with Liverpool hosting Chelsea in the Carabao Cup before taking on Arsenal in the league. Yet their rivalry extends beyond the touchline—they once shared a youth team at Basque club Antiguoko.
According to former Antiguoko coach Roberto Montiel, now the club's vice president, Arteta was the one who showed early signs of a coaching future. Montiel recalled that the Arsenal boss displayed "a lot of maturity" from a young age, often watching training sessions and offering tactical suggestions.
Arteta's Early Coaching Instincts
Montiel told The Sun that Arteta "always played ahead of his age group and showed a lot of maturity despite being a little boy." He added, "Right away, we knew he could make it at a professional level."
"He's the best player I have ever seen at Antiguoko, better even than Alonso, and I think he had the idea of being a coach a long time before he hung up his boots," Montiel said. "Arteta would watch me coach some of the teams and afterwards bombard me with ideas and suggestions of how to change things around. He was still only young, but I could see he was engineering the idea of coaching. I would laugh because he'd tell me where my team was failing and where I had to use the scalpel to make changes!"
Alonso's Commanding Presence
Alonso, who enjoyed the most distinguished playing career of the trio, was more "introverted" but possessed "a commanding presence" on the pitch. Montiel described him as a "small lad, who didn't bulk up until the Under-17s," yet he "organised play very well and was a commanding presence without being very bossy."
"He was a bit introverted but transformed when on the pitch. He was never someone who needed to shout a lot - a few words was all it took. But he was always highly respected and when Xabi said something, everyone respected it," Montiel added.
Iraola's Late Development
Iraola, the shyest of the three, did not reveal his coaching potential until after retiring. Montiel told the Liverpool Echo, "Andoni was a very shy boy and a very good student, and he had spectacular talent. As a child, being very shy, when we had the game under control he would do things with the ball that very few players could do."
Montiel played a key role in launching Iraola's managerial career. "The truth is that when he quit football, I thought he was going to retire, but when he called me and told me that he wanted to start coaching and asked if I could give him a team in Antiguoko, I saw that he might have the makings of a coach," he said. "He went to Madrid to get his coaching licence and there I saw that he might have a future, since he was the best in his class during the course."
Iraola's first senior role came at AEK Larnaca, followed by spells at Mirandes and Rayo Vallecano. Bournemouth appointed him in 2023, leading to Europa League qualification, before Liverpool hired him in June.
Arteta, after retiring in 2016, chose to work under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. He became Arsenal manager in 2019, transforming the club into Premier League champions. Alonso managed Real Sociedad B and Bayer Leverkusen, winning the Bundesliga unbeaten in 2023/24, before a brief spell at Real Madrid. Chelsea appointed him in July, setting up Wednesday's reunion at Anfield.
