By Myles Palmer
Two fantastic quotes from Wenger and Vieira last week.
After Wenger signed Francis Jeffers he might have said,”I knew I had to buy some English players this summer because I signed Lauren,Pires,Wiltord and Stepanovs last summer.”
But what he said was brilliant and typical.He said that he looked at Jeffers’s quality, not his passport.
THAT’S WHAT HE SAYS WHEN HE SIGNS A FORIGN PLAYER!!!
He’s a droll chap, this Wenger, and that’s why I like him and respect him.
The full quote was: “I have signed Francis because he is a good player and has the qualities I need in my team.
“He can score goals and go in the box, and he is a mobile player. We play football based on mobility and technique here and he is a good runner off the ball.
“He is only 20 and he’s a great example of a player with quality because he’s already had experience of playing in the Premiership.
“Maybe people will be surprised that I have signed an Englishman but I looked at his quality and not his passport. You need an English base and the right mixture at a club.
“We shall stick to a 4-4-2 formation and I hope he gets in the team because he has the qualities to do it. Francis is that ‘fox in the box’ we have been talking about and although he is a goalscorer I want to develop him as a team player so he is not obsessed by just scoring goals.But his goals per game ratio is very good for someone of his age.”
By the way, my Merseyside contact say Jeffers is quite fiery and spiky, a bit like Alan Smith of Leeds.He is hated by Liverpool fans because he got Westerveld sent off.
VIEIRA is staying, as I always thought he would.
He said,”There’s no reason for me to leave.It’s irrelevant to talk about leaving – I feel great here. We don’t reach every goal but the motivation and spirit are there.”
He added: “We all want to give our best.We should all be grateful to Arsene Wenger – he has certainly done a lot
for my game.”
Patrick Vieira is a great guy and we often forget that.We all talk about what a great player he is, an awesome anchorman/defender/attacker, a standard-bearer who makes great tackles, fine passes and, now, scores match-winning goals, as he did against Japan in the Confederation Cup Final.
We forget that Patrick is modest. He’s loyal. He is a really decent man.
Figo might leave Barcelona and sign for Real Madrid, but you know in your bones that Vieira would never sign for Man United.So you don’t worry about that.
I never thought that another footballer could mean as much to me as Denis Law or Peter Osgood, but this guy does.
And we need that these days.We all need somebody to believe in. Cricket is mediocre or bent, politics is all spin,BBC Breakfast presenters chat to each other, not to camera, George Dubya is a dangerous moron, there ain’t enough teachers, doctors or nurses.But a few things,like football, keep us going.
But it has to be good football played by credible clubs and decent millionaires who mean what they say.
I’m too wise and too cynical to succumb to blind hero-worship. But I love Patrick Vieira.
It’s been a privilege to watch his career blossom.Nobody deserves it more and its heartening to know that he genuinely appreciates what Wenger ands Arsenal have done for him.
18th June 2001.