Tag Archives: Patrick Vieira

Patrick Vieira set for Arsenal return

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We wake up this morning that Patrick Vieira could be on the verge of leaving Manchester City this summer.

When Vieira joined the Manchester City coaching staff in 2011, having recently stopped playing for the club, many Arsenal fans were critical of Arsene Wenger and the club for not doing enough to bring the former captain home. At the time, I could understand why Vieira went straight from playing for City to joining their set up as Football Development Executive. A made up title to keep Vieira round, pay a high wage, and use him to attract players.

Since then, Vieira has reportedly become a decent coach. Now the reserve team and Elite Development squad manager of Manchester City, he has spent 3 years gaining his coaching qualifications, and is highly regarded.

All of the cards are now falling into place. With his contract expiring, and his coaching experience, and Vieira still living in the Hampstead mansion he owned when playing for Arsenal, the club need to make an offer to bring the former captain home to London, and take his place amongst the Arsenal coaching staff.

Early reports are that he could be on the way to Bayern Munich to manager their ‘B’ team. This just further highlights how highly regarded he is throughout football. Any offer from Arsenal would surely gazump any approach by Bayern Munich.

Whilst being a top player does not necessarily make you a top coach or manager (Roy Keane, Tony Adams), Vieira has shown ability, and just having him around the club would be a good influence on the young players within the squad.

With Robert Pires  employed by the club as an Ambassador, Thierry Henry having a larger involvement in the club whilst undertaking his coaching badge, Freddie Ljungberg set take his badges,  and Gilberto Silva having recently been invitedback to the club to do some coaching, the return of Vieira alongside these invincible’s could see Arsenal end up mirroring the Ajax set up.

Imagine having 5 invincible’s on the training ground on a daily basis. All that would be missing would be Dennis Bergkamp.

The time has come for Arsenal to pull out the stops and bring Patrick Vieira home.

Keenos

 

The Arsenal and Me – Paul’s Story

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Tuesday 11th May 1999.. a day that changed my footballing life forever..

For 17 and a half years i had been a massive Nottingham Forest fan, enjoying many a day out at Wembely, FA Cup finals, Rumbelows Cup finals, still basking in the glory of being the only team in Europe to have won the European Cup more times than their domestic league.
Then, that fateful Tuesday, a friend of mine at school, a season ticket holder with his dad at Highbury, came into the common room & announced that his dad couldn’t make it to the Arsenal away game up at Elland Road that night and was there any takers? Well, being a die hard football fan i thrust my hand into the air & the ticket was mine.
We made our way up to leeds & I was really excited about the game, it was the first time I´d been to a game that Forest weren´t playing in so I remember thinking that I just wanted to see a bloody good game & I didn´t honestly care about the result. It wasn´t great, Arsenal lost 1-0 to a late Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink goal after Leeds had missed a penalty in the first half & as I left the ground with all the dejected fans, I kind of felt like someone leaving the house of their lover after having cheated on their wife… almost ashamed. The game had been pretty poor but after having seen the likes of Dennis Bergkamp & Patrick Vieira playing, did i really want to go back to my wife at home after having just been with a supermodel?
Of course it wasn´t an instant thing, I still renewed my season ticket at the City Ground & I still was a big Forest fan, but I always found myself checking the Arsenal scores when I got in, being delighted if they´d won & down if they´d lost. Little by little I found myself taking less interest in Forest during the week and more & more interest in how Arsenal had gone on, who they were playing the next weekend, any signings they were making etc..
Within a year or so I´d made the permanent move. I´ll always have a place in my heart for Forest, they´re like a first girlfriend, you never stop thinking about them or wishing them the best but ultimately, you don´t want to spend your whole life with them. Since then I haven’t been to as many Arsenal games as I would have liked. Living in Nottingham, studying in Sheffield & emigrating to Spain hasn’t helped but nowadays whenever I´m in England I try to catch a game. Villa away a couple of Christmases ago, Wigan last Christmas and this summer I’ve been lucky enough to see them play in Japan.
It´s weird because I got/still get loads of abuse from my friends and family, no one could believe what was happening but whenever people ask me about it, to this day (over 14 years since the first seed was planted in my mind) I give the same response.. football is like love, you can’t choose where and with who it takes you..