SOCCER ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE:PATRICK VIEIRA, one of the more formidable competitors to grace the Premier League, has returned to English football as part of Manchester City's money-no-object bid to be recognised among the sport's leading forces.
The former Arsenal captain was in Manchester last night to finalise the details of his contract and take a medical examination and has been lined up to make his debut in Monday night’s game against Blackburn Rovers.
Four and a half years since leaving England, the man whose clashes with Roy Keane came to epitomise Arsenal’s rivalry with Manchester United will join the growing band of players at City to be paid in excess of €111,230-a-week, initially on a six-month contract but with the option of another year written into the terms.
The 33-year-old has lost his place in the France national squad after being marginalised at Internazionale under Jose Mourinho and said he was returning to England to further his ambitions of playing in a fourth World Cup.
“I set myself an objective – I want to go to the World Cup,” Vieira, who has not played in a competitive fixture for France since September 2007, said. “The important thing for me is to go to Manchester City and to show the coach (Roberto Mancini) I’m the same player as when he was in charge of Inter.”
Vieira played his final match for Internazionale in a 1-0 victory over Chievo on Wednesday. “He was great in his last game for us,” Mourinho said. “He is a player we will certainly miss now he is leaving.”
Mancini already has a healthy complement of international central midfielders. He has not been in the job long enough to settle on one formation, let alone a regular starting XI, but the names in Vieira’s way include Stephen Ireland, Gareth Barry and Nigel de Jong, while Vincent Kompany might also stake a claim were he not already filling in for absentees in the defence. Ireland was named the club’s player of the season in 2008-09, while Barry and De Jong have been two of their most consistent performers this season.
At his peak Vieira would have walked into such a team, but his form over the past few seasons suggests that peak is some way behind him. Vieira would hardly be the oldest midfielder in the Premier League, but during four years at Internazionale his playing time has steadily decreased.
While the face will be familiar to English fans, the player himself may not. By the time Mancini left Inter Vieira’s capacity for box-to-box running had been diminished by niggling knee and hamstring injuries. Since taking charge in the summer of 2008, Mourinho has rarely asked the player to perform as anything other than a holding midfielder sitting in front of the defence.
But while his sense of positioning and ability to pick the right pass under pressure might suggest Vieira would be suited to such a role, in practice he has never settled into it. Although he is aware of the spaces he should take up, Vieira’s desire to be involved at all times tends to drag him up the pitch and his declining pace means he often struggles to make up the ground when opponents look to counter. This, in turn, leads him to give away fouls. In 91 official games for Inter, he was shown 26 yellow cards and three red. That is not to say that Vieira is incapable of turning in a solid performance.
Vieira may play more, but not every game according to his old Arsenal team-mate Lee Dixon. He said: “Patrick gets a few little niggles and hasn’t got a classically fit footballer’s body, where you know he’s an athlete who can go on and on. He might look like he has that body, but he hasn’t. He always needed a long time to recover after games, longer than some of the older lads.”
If there is one area of Vieira’s game that has not been in doubt this season for Inter it is his work ethic, and while Mancini has yet to speak publicly on his reasons for signing the player it seems likely that this was a major factor. Mourinho has alluded a number of times this season to young players in his squad whose sense of entitlement prevents them from working hard enough on the training ground, but Vieira’s conduct has been beyond reproach. Mancini may already have detected one or two in his own squad who would benefit from the example.
Mancini may also simply have been moved by a desire to bring in somebody who is used to winning. As well as the World Cup in 1998 and a European Championship with France two years later, Vieira has won the Premier League and Serie A three times.
Vieira will not be content merely to provide a positive influence from the bench. He expects to start, and Mancini has once fallen out with the player – Vieira refusing his handshake after being substituted during a game in 2008. But if Manchester City are going to continue to progress, these are the sorts of hurdles Mancini will have to overcome.
Guardian Service
