Arnason’s odyssey has time left for glory with Rotherham

Plying his trade with one of the most go-ahead outfits in the Football League in Rotherham United, showcasing their talents in a £20m new stadium – with a state-of-the-art training ground on the way – and displaying ambition with a capital A in their quest to make it back to the Championship stage they last graced in 2004-05, the Icelandic international has plenty to feel content about ahead of the Millers’ sell-out Yorkshire derby.

Rewind 15 months and the picture for Arnason, 29, was not so promising.

People see modern-day professional footballers enjoying the trappings of wealth but in the summer of 2011, Arnason was struggling to pay the bills.

While players in the past have been released from clubs for drink, drugs, and gambling issues, his ‘crime’ was for wanting his wages to be paid.

And, incredibly, in June, 2011, Arnason was sacked by email by troubled Plymouth Argyle’s administrator for failing to defer his salary for another month, even though he had not been paid since the previous October and was owed something like £60,000.

That crowned a turbulent couple of seasons in the south-west, which saw Argyle suffer back-to-back relegations and plunge into administration amid a mountain of debts in March of that year, with Arnason – who after his axing reported the club to the Football League and the FA for a breach of rules – eventually kick-starting his career in probably the furthest place you could get from Plymouth – 618 miles north in Aberdeen.

Arnason, 29, who had played football in Iceland, Sweden and Denmark before trying his hand in the Football League in 2009 , said: “With the administration at Plymouth, it was an absolute horror show. I’m still getting paid and will be probably for the next 10 years. Obviously, Rotherham is a club that is going somewhere and, hopefully, we’ll win more games than we lose!

“It was tough at Plymouth, especially when you go for about seven months without pay. Obviously, on the pitch, we would have stayed in the league (League One in 2010-11) if we hadn’t had 10 points deducted.

“It was kind of for nothing in the end. There was no goodwill; I’d played for seven months without pay and then said: ‘I’m not doing it any more’ and then the administrator says: ‘All right, you are out of the door.’ That’s football for you.

“Most players want to come to England and I was no exception. Scouts in League One and the Championship just look in England, so it was hard getting here.

“I remember coming on trial at Plymouth when I was playing probably for a better team in the Danish Premiership at the time.

“The main reason I wanted to come was that the Danish tax system changed after three years and I had to get out of there or I would have paid 60 per cent tax. England was my first choice and I lined up a few clubs and Plymouth was the first one and Paul Sturrock decided to sign me. I had a good time on the pitch, but it was a crazy time.”

On his passage back over the border to Rotherham from Aberdeen, Arnason – who actually turned down an offer to be made the top-earner at Pittodrie for a second chance in England this summer – added: “I had some options in Scotland and could have stayed at Aberdeen.

“I also had some other options in England. But I just felt Rotherham were going places. It’s a nice project and they want a double promotion and if they are successful like that, it will be brilliant to be part of it.

“I’ve two titles and promotions and it will be nice to have few more.”

Brought in as a midfielder by Millers manager Steve Evans he may have been, but Arnason has made a considerable mark as a defender in the early stages of 2012-13, although with Johnny Mullins fit again, the smart money is on him returning to his more natural position shortly.

His consummate skills at centre-back have already seen United rebuff a couple of considerable offers from Championship clubs, despite him only joining the club a few months ago, with Evans adamant the player is not for sale.

It was at the heart of the back four that Arnason earned plaudits in a man-of-the-man showing in a friendly with France in a Euro 2012 warm-up game against Les Bleus in late May, when he marked a certain Karim Benzema. And the man he looked after in the encounter with Sweden three days later? None other than AC Milan’s talisman forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

But midfield remains Arnason’s natural domain, with the way he controlled the game from the engine room in the Millers’ first game at the New York Stadium in July – in a 2-1 friendly success over neighbouring Barnsley – seriously whetting the appetite of home supporters.

Arnason, who will link up with his Icelandic team-mates after today’s game ahead of their World Cup qualifying encounter at home to Albania in Reykjavik on September 7 and the trip to Cyprus four days later, said: “I’d played in midfield all my life until I came to Plymouth, who were then in the Championship, and Paul Sturrock decided to play me at centre-half.

“I liked it there, but until coming to Rotherham, I’d never played there in the lower leagues – which is a different ball game and it’s mainly just heading.

“To be fair, I play at centre-half for Iceland as well now, so I am used to it a bit.

“I’ve also played there for Aberdeen against Rangers and Celtic.

“But playing there in League Two is probably harder where the game is so quick and the ball is always coming over your head; it’s probably the hardest position on the pitch.

“Playing internationals, it’s more football and you can read the game and pass it around. League Two is more hoofing it and you being on the end of it. You are playing against some big boys.

“I like to play the ball, but sometimes it’s hard in League Two. You have to do the best you can.

“As I get older, I’ll probably be at centre-half mainly, but now I think it can do a job in midfield.”

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