Patrick Vieira, how can you sleep?



By Myles Palmer

Did you wonder how Mark Irwin had new Patrick Vieira quotes every day?

I certainly did.

Then, last night, I got a call from my mole in News International.

Vieira SOLD his exclusive slag-off quotes to The Sun!

Vieira approved all those insulting comments that Gilles Grimandi and I refused to believe came from his mouth.

Vieira approved the headline from Miami.

Vieira even saw, I’m told, a fax of the back page : VIEIRA BLOWS HIS TOP- Two-faced Arsenal won’t finish in the top five this season.

Those who said football is the new rock & roll got it right.

Patrick Vieira is now behaving like a rock star. My Golden Rule with rock stars? However big you think their egos are, they are always bigger.

Vieira is like a group that does a couple of albums for Rough Trade, then gets offered $5 million by Geffen. They always go for the big bucks.

We have all been conned -teammates, fans, media, staff at Arsenal,everybody.

Vieira consistently conned gullible French reporters into believing he is Mr Nice Guy, a mature intelligent man who is NOT mainly motivated by money.

Arsenal could damage Vieira. They could probably sue Marc Roger for inducement to breach of contract. They could suspend Vieira indefinitely. They could take revenge.They could teach him a hardlesson, embarrass him, make him realise what a shallow, disloyal, greedy and COWARDLY little man he has become.

But Vieira is banking on David Dein doing what he did with Anelka : get as much money as possible for him.But if Arsenal do that are they inviting Real Madrid to come back next year and take Thierry Henry?

We all thought Patrick Vieira was a super-gladiator and a good guy.But he turns out to be a moral dwarf in a giant’s body. If he wanted to leave Arsenal he should HAVE THE BALLS to come on TV and say:I have put in a transfer request because I want to play for Real Madrid.

Instead the man who professed to detest the English tabloid press decided to SLAG OFF his club and his teammates as no-hopers.

And slag off two new players, Francis Jeffers and

Giovanni van Bronckhorst, that he has never even met or played with.

Not only that, he slagged them off in The Sun. Not only that, he got paid for it. He sold his abuse because his abuse was big news.He sold his abuse to burn his bridges.

Yes, football is now like showbusiness. Just because somebody can sing well, or play exciting guitar, it does not mean he is a nice guy.Often it means the opposite.Often he is a bastard who always, always, always looks after No.1.

Will he go to Real Madrid? I suppose so. I hate Real because they play by different rules. Backed by the govermnment and the banks, favoured by the media and referees, they simply cannot understand the concept of

fair play or the concept of a level playing field.

Real Madrid were recently operating while owing £200 million. It’s immoral, corrupt and ridiculous. FIFA and UEFA should not allow it, but they do and they will.

I don’t mind Vieira leaving. But I hate him leaving this way. I detest the guy now. If Vieira joins Real Madrid I won’t watch Spanish football on Sky, which I have watched regularly for five years. If I see him on my screen I will switch off.

Vieira decided he was bigger than Arsenal, so he told Arsenal they would not finish in the top five and have no chance in the Champions League.

I feel so sorry for Arsene Wenger today. He deserves more respect than this.He did not expect, in his worst nightmares, his definitive player to slag off Arsenal in The Sun, and slag off two players he has just signed before they have played one game.

What an insult to a patient, caring, forgiving football coach who has nurtured him for five years. And what an insult to the fans who used to sing Vieira’s name even when he was not in the team.

The lesson of this whole disgusting episode? Don’t have heroes.Don’t believe in heroes. I learned this in 1965 :Doing one thing very well does NOT make somebody a great man.

Patrick Vieira did not have to do it this way. He could have left Arsenal without insulting everybody.

Patrick, how can you sleep at night after this?

Whatever else you do in the future, don’t ask for forgiveness. Don’t ever say you are sorry.

Decent footballers never insult their club and their team and theirmanager as you have just done.

You’ve spent FIVE YEARS playing with Tony Adams, Dave Seaman,Lee Dixon, Martin Keown and Ray Parlour – and you’ve chosen to piss on them from an enormous height. That is vicious, squalid and inexcusable.

Spitting on Neil Ruddock in the heat of battle is one thing. Pissing on a million Arsenal fans in a calculated insult is quite another.

You’ve given Arsenal five years of magnificent service, become the best player in the Premiership, and destroyed your reputation with one gross act of dim-witted greed. You’ve torpedoed your own legend.

If you prefer the advice of a scoundrel like Marc Roger to that of a gentleman like Arsene Wenger, you must be a lot thicker, nastier and more arrogant than we ever suspected.

How can you sleep at night?

27th June 2001

P.S. Last night Arsene Wenger was back in London. We await his comments with interest. Does he still want to be a football manager?