Paddy looking for a mirage in the sand of the sheikh
For a year the wallpaper on my computer showed Patrick Vieira’s last kick of a ball in an Arsenal shirt. Wheeling away after scoring in the penalty shoot-out which beat bitter rivals Manchester United in the 2005 FA Cup Final. I felt as sad about Paddy’s move to Juventus as I had when Liam Brady had made the same move 25 years previously. The wallpaper only changed a year later, as I waved goodbye to Dennis Bergkamp and Highbury itself.
It was a month before the farewell to Highbury that the magic of Vieira started to vanish for me. Arsenal had drawn Juventus in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. The Gunners ran out 2–0 winners on aggregate, scoring twice in the first leg at Highbury. During that match, Vieira was tackled and dispossessed by his former club and French national team mate Robert Pires, and he never looked the same player again, earning himself a yellow card that ruled him out of the return game in Turin.
And so it has continued for the past four years, despite a move to Inter. Vieira has lost his place in the French national team and the Juventus first team. Regaining the former depended on playing tiop flight football and it was little surprise that Paddy looked back to the place that had originally made his name – the English Premier League. What is a surprise is that Manchester City have chosen to take him on – I suppose it’s what comes of having more money than sense. You certainly can’t blame the player – a six-month contract worth £150,000-a-week and the faint chance to push for inclusion in France’s World Cup squad surely makes it a no-brainer for him.
Five years ago, Arsene Wenger decided that the progress of young Spaniard called Cesc Fabregas would be blocked by the retention of an increasingly injury-prone Vieira. But it seems that Roberto Mancini has decided that Vieira can take a place in front of younger midfielders such as Gareth Barry, Stephen Ireland and Nigel De Jong. Does Barry now wish he had stayed at Villa Park? The move is all the more baffling when the Frenchman’s last three games on English soil are remembered. Not only the 2006 Highbury appearance noted above, but also poor games at Anfield and Old Trafford, where he was substituted at half time. In the past three seasons, Vieira managed just 54 games and scored just six goals. This season he has averaged just 55 minutes in each of his 16 games. Paddy’s no longer the energetic box-to-box man of his Highbury heyday. Although I was sad to see him go, I knew we’d had his best days – even in his last season with Arsenal it was clear he was not the player he had been. If he can’t keep up with the slower pace of Serie A, how on earth can he compete in the Prenier League? Apparently Wenger had first refusal, but chose not to take back his former captain. That’s good enough for me.
But Vieira still holds a place in the heart of most Arsenal fans. So if he can have a last tilt at glory and take some money out of Eastlands, good luck to him.
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