“It makes your skin thicker” – Mikel Arteta suggests criticism has helped Arsenal player grow

Martin Ødegaard has been impressing for Arsenal in the Premier League this season, with six goals and three assists from 28 matches.

The Gunners initially took him on a loan deal from Real Madrid in January 2021. He scored once and registered two assists from 20 matches in all competitions. Even though his statistics were not impressive, the English club decided to buy him from the La Liga side last summer.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has given a detailed interview to Norway’s TV2, in which he discussed how the 23-year-old has evolved in the ongoing campaign. He detailed how Ødegaard also improves players around him at the Emirates.

Arteta first heard of Ødegaard when the Spaniard was a player at Arsenal himself.

He had trials at top clubs across Europe, including the Gunners, before he joined Real Madrid at the age of 15 for a reported fee of €3m. Arteta discussed Ødegaard’s past and how it has helped him develop as a player.

“Before the criticism, it was the price. And the price was so high, so early, without doing anything special. They set the list for him at a level he could not even see, because he did not get the opportunity to play. It was impossible for him to close that gap,” Arteta said.

“He had to accept many things: Not to play, to be out of the team, to be criticised. But it’s part of a player’s development. It makes your skin thicker. If you get through those moments, you are much better prepared for the good times, as he is now.

“I see where he is now. It is up to him how far he can go. However, he has to be Martin Ødegaard because when he was 16 years old, people talked to him as if he were someone else, who had already made a career. That was his problem.

“He has to build his own career. I think he’s on the right track. He enjoys his football, which I think is the most important thing for him to develop into the player he wants.”