MY IQU TO PSG

With Ronaldinho for a room-mate & Poch as his skipper, Arteta says Paris experience helped make him the man he is today...

- MIKE WALTERS

MIKEL ARTETA will always be indebted to Paris SaintGermain for his first taste of professional football unforgettable experience of being Ronaldinho's room-mate.

The Arsenal manager was a callow 18-year-old when he was shipped out on loan to the French capital from Barcelona back in 2001.

At the Emirates tonight, Arteta hopes to repay PSG for their hospitality and ruffle the entente cordiale with a statement win in the Champions League.

But he remains grateful for the fasttrack to first-team experience in a side captained by future.

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino and the cultural crash course of rooming with a rising Brazilian HOMS superstar.

Although Ronaldinho would later fall out with thenPSG manager Luis Fernandez, who claimed the Samba sensation was paying more attention to Paris nightlife than football, Arteta enjoyed his roommate's joiede vivre. The Gunners boss (below) recalled how his 18 months in Paris began with a bump-start, saying: "We were in Barcelona when we got a phone call saying, 'You need to pack your bags and fly to Paris, now'.