I would love to stay but it is up to Rotherham, says Arnason

The Icelandic international said that the Millers’ dramatic penalty shoot-out success over Leyton Orient at Wembley provided some compensation for his country’s World Cup play-off defeat to Croatia in November, in which he featured, with the classy operator now hoping he will be around for the club’s brave new dawn in the second tier.

Unlike his team-mates, 
Arnason’s celebrations will be cut short, with the 31-year-old linking up with the Iceland national team later today ahead of their forthcoming friendly with Austria.

But the defender, equally at home in midfield, is hoping to come back in July for the start of pre-season as a Millers player.

Arnason, whose deal expires next month, said: “I am out of contract, so I don’t even know if I will be here. Nothing has been said.

“Who knows? Of course, having helped get this team this far. I would love to stay. We’ll see what happens. It’s up to them. I have said I want to stay.

“If they don’t want me here, that’s fine too.”

On what victory at the home of football meant to him, Arnason added: “This win is definitely up there, in terms of my career highlights. On my debut for my country, I got a red card after about 20 seconds, so this definitely ranks higher.

“I won the title in Sweden in my first year as a professional. But winning at Wembley is just fantastic. What a way to do it; the play-offs is the best way to get promoted. Everyone watches the play-offs.

“After losing with Iceland late last year, I said that there was no chance that I was losing two play-off finals in approximately six months. But when those two goals went in for Orient, I was little pessimistic.

“With the way we play, we just keep going and going and even when we go down, whether it be one, two or three goals, we just keep at it and believe something will fall for us eventually – whether it’s in the 15th minute or 90th.

“To be fair, it went for us quite early in the second half and we dominated. Alex’s second was some goal. I was shaking my head when that went in.”