A Personal Ode to Nacho Monreal

By Urban Newton

(@urban_newton)

I don’t look like many footballers.

But apparently I do look like Nacho Monreal, the left-back who left Arsenal this Summer to go back to Spain at the age of thirty-three.

The only nickname that has ever stuck is “Urbs”, but even that’s not exactly a nickname.

It must have been in Year 11 when people started calling me Nacho. I was happy with it. I’m left-footed, I mostly played centre-back but had some stints at left-back and I support Arsenal.

“Best left-back in the league,” I used to say. (It’s worth noting that this is long before Andy Robertson would solidly cement his place at the pinnacle of the Premier League’s tree of left-sided fullbacks.)

Nacho also became my name when I played Sunday-league. I even had to move club when I was in sixth-form (due to one side folding) and the name came with me too.

In the first year of university, I used to play five-a-side on an all-weather pitch at my accommodation. I was asking for it, turning up every week in a “Monreal 18” Arsenal shirt, wasn’t I really?

But now, as I begin my third and final year at uni, Nacho Monreal no longer plays for Arsenal. And I am gutted.

I don’t think it was an exaggeration when I used to say he was the best left-back in the league. He was so consistent.

There are very few players at top sides who aren’t world-beaters yet can get a place in the starting eleven week-in-week-out due to their reliability.

Nacho was more of a ball-playing full-back. He didn’t bomb forward on the overlap constantly, but he did like to move the ball quickly down the left-hand side and get himself into a position to play a cutback if possible.

In April 2017, he even scored the equalizer in our FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City. A match that we would go on to win, then lift the cup by beating Chelsea in the final.

We played Antonio Conte’s side at their own game that day. Nacho played on the left of a back three that also featured Rob Holding and Per Mertesacker.

We won 2-1 against the runaway Premier League champions. We were immense at the back.

Nacho’s capability to play in a back three just showcased his defensive attributes too. Fullbacks are more like withdrawn wingers in this day and age, but Nacho could defend. His positioning was great.

Arsenal should never have got rid of Nacho Monreal this Summer. He started the first three fixtures we had before the European transfer window shut and played to the same fantastic standard.

Yet the thirty-three-year-old did go to Real Sociedad. He even scored on his La Liga return against Atletico Madrid.

Nacho played at Arsenal for six years. We bought him for just £8.5m on deadline day of January 2013. A ridiculous price for someone so irreplaceable for so many years.

I don’t really get called Nacho any more. It’s probably because I don’t play football as much as I should any more.

I used to love Nacho Monreal- a real unsung hero at one of Europe’s England’s top clubs.

From one wannabe Nacho to the real one, thank you for your services to Arsenal Football Club and how proud you made me feel to be called Nacho, even if it was just a nickname.

By Urban “Nacho” Newton

(@urban_newton)