“They have welcomed me as one more”

Take MD's call from Birmingham, his new place of residence and work. Mikel
Saint
José (Atarrabia, 5-30-1989) ended his long career as an Athletic player this summer and decided to embark on the adventure of the Championship (English Second Division) at the hands of another illustrious ex-rojiblanco. The Navarrese yearns for Lezama, although he feels fully integrated and identified with this new project that he leads from the bench Aitor
Kar
anka. The conversation takes place shortly before the duel between Villarreal and Athletic in El Madrigal.

How are things around Birmingham?

Personally and in football terms, everything is going very well, but with great regret about what continues to happen with the COVID issue, with the new news that comes from the London strain, which is very close to here, and which seems to affect directly to all of England. We are expecting.

Can the restrictions also affect football?

For the moment, with total normality, at that level. We recently played a game in Reading with an audience and although there were only 2,000 people, it was wonderful to see people on the field and relive that feeling of feeling that football was more football again. Again, however, it seems that there are going to be steps backwards.

With or without new restrictions, the truth is that in the end you will be able to spend Christmas with your family, right?

Yes. Fortunately they have caught the flight on time and now a few days of confinement await them because when they come from there (from Pamplona) it has to be like that, but otherwise everything is fine. We will spend Christmas here.

Is the imminent entry into force of Brexit going to affect them at all?

We are not very clear about it, we do not know to what extent it affects us. We have had to fill out a kind of document prior to the United Kingdom leaving the European Union in which it is given to us as a five-year stay that could then be permanently renewed. Stay in which we maintain our rights as foreigners, as if there were no Brexit. The same rights in terms of work, health, education … We have not broken our heads, wow.

On a personal level, from what he tells me, fine. And at the football level, how are you?

Good very good. Very happy with the team, with the teammates and with the coach and the coaching staff, although the last games have not gone very well after having a series of games competing at a high level and beating rivals from the upper zone. With a lot of optimism. I think this team has a lot of wickers to do beautiful things. We are eleven new players who have arrived this summer and making a competitive team in the short term is difficult.

How about Aitor Karanka as coach?

Good. Following the two closely to Athletic. We are being lucky because it coincides many times that we play away from home that Athletic also play that same day and we usually watch their matches at the hotel, on a big screen. Very good relationship with Karanka, very close. The feelings as a coach are also very very good. Hopefully everything continues to go this well.

Are the two of you left alone watching Athletic matches?

No, what's up. Karanka often tells the guy who makes us the videos to see if he can put it on the hotel's big screen. The four of us who are here, the club that we say, Jon Toral, Iván Sánchez and Andrés Prieto, who have come this year, and Jeremie Bela, who has played for Albacete, we usually stay to see Athletic with part of the coaching staff because in addition to Aitor, here are his brother David, Juanjo Vila and Carlos Luengo.

And if they play Madrid or Barça, what happens? Do you have to forget about Athletic?

No. We are usually lucky because if a team that has a preference on television plays we cannot see Athletic. So in that case, I go up to the room and follow him online.

Have you already had a nickname in the Birmingham dressing room?

Not right now. Beyond a bit of a joke with the name, yes Mikel, yes Maiquel, yes Maik, yes San José, yes San Yose, yes Sanyo … Nothing specific, but I'm sure it will come because the English are very jokers.

From what he says, he seems to have been well received in the Birmingham dressing room.

Yes, from day one. When you leave a changing room like Athletic's, you don't know what awaits you. I was in Liverpool before and I was good, but in the Athletic dressing room you feel at home, as a family. When you go out you don't know what awaits you, but I have found a very good group, people who from the first day welcome you as one of them, as if they have known you for a lifetime. Pleasantly surprised.

Is it cold outside of Lezama?

If I go out here now, it's colder still (jokes).

Footballistically too?

The truth is that I am very well in football, I am feeling comfortable, physically very well. In the end, it is true, when you are in Lezama you are at home, you are where you want to be and when you leave the feeling of emptiness it may be that it exists, more so for one who has been in that changing room for eleven years because I have been able and it was the place where wanted to be. Then it's time to go out and it is clear that you miss it, that you know that as there you will not be anywhere else, but I'm not bad here at all, quite the opposite. A totally enriching experience in Birmingham for me, for the family, for the kids. Keep it this way.

Is Karanka using you as a central or a medium?

Of everything. Especially as a pivot, although in days that we have played with five he has put me as a center-back on the line of three. He uses me more as a pivot, but with total normality in either of the two positions.

Is English football as physical as it seems, especially in the Championship?

Yes Yes. Nothing to see. Very physical, very direct, many minutes per game are played, there is a brutal intensity and most of the teams, rather than trying to play, make high pressure and direct play … It is a League in which you finish each game completely exhausted. Getting the points is very difficult.