Wenger 'not a big fan' of re-signing players

ARSENE WENGER will, over the coming days, turn his thoughts as to whether he can offer Patrick Vieira a short-term contract at Arsenal, and he remains optimistic that a deal can be struck for his former captain and one-time midfield inspiration.

The Frenchman’s general policy is not to re-sign players but he insisted yesterday that practice is not set in stone and he hinted that Vieira, now at Internazionale, could prove to be an exception. He also joked that there would be no need to make phone calls to Italy or the Italian club because of the depth of his relationship with Vieira. “If I want to call Patrick, I take an English number. An illegal approach, yes,” he said with a smile.

Wenger’s team won the Emirates Cup yesterday with a 3-0 victory over Rangers, which came hard on the heels of Saturday’s 2-1 success against Atletico Madrid, and they do not play again until the trip to Valencia this Saturday – their final fixture before the start of the Premier League season. Vieira, however, will fly with Inter to Beijing today where his team are scheduled to face Lazio in the Italian Super Cup on Saturday. The distance between him and Wenger in terms of miles and time zones is unlikely to stop them from talking.

“I have had these two games against Atletico and Rangers to think about,” said Wenger. “Now we have a day off. I think about the whole squad because two weeks ago, for example, I didn’t know whether we would have Tomas Rosicky and Eduardo back or not, and they both look to be completely back so that makes the squad quite big.

“Would I like to work with Patrick again? I have no personal problem with Patrick at all; I have a huge respect for him. We have a very good relationship. It is a general policy [not to re-sign players] but I never said I would never do it. Usually I don’t do it. I am not a big fan because I feel that once the player has gone, he’s gone.”

One of the principal attractions in bringing Vieira back would appear to be his commanding presence in the dressingroom and his winners’ mentality. “I don’t deny that,” said Wenger, who has a young squad, “but you have an impact when you play. Patrick is a great player. I have not considered it yet to bring him back, it is a possibility that I have to think about. First of all, it is not sure that he will decide to join us if I decide to try to make him come. So there is a lot of thinking to be done.”

Meanwhile, Carlo Ancelotti has warned Chelsea’s players that they will have to tighten up defensively. The Italian’s side take on Manchester United in the Community Shield on Sunday and he knows that mistakes must be eradicated with the start of his first Premier League campaign due the following week.

Ancelotti was unhappy with the two first-half goals conceded by Chelsea in their friendly at Reading on Saturday, citing an error by his centre-back pairing of John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho for the second goal. Chelsea were held to a 2-2 draw as the Championship side harried for a point.

“For the second goal Terry and Carvalho did not pressurise the striker enough and he got in the position which led to the free-kick,” said Ancelotti. “In pre-season these kind of mistakes can happen but hopefully not after. But as a group we have a very good defence. Before this match we played four and conceded just one goal to Milan.

“The most important thing from this game was the reaction of the team. We kept playing until the last minutes. We dominated the play and probably had 30 shots on goal. We were unlucky but that can happen [when] you lose two goals.”

Ancelotti conceded his side would have to be prepared for the challenge of creating opportunities against teams whose modus operandi is primarily to defend. “It was a lesson for me and for the players. All the great teams are targets for smaller clubs who fight hard and close space, and that makes it harder for us. But it is up to our attacking players to open up the spaces and make opportunities.”