By Myles Palmer
Patrick says he would far rather win the Champions League with Arsenal than with Real Madrid.
He is currently negotiating a new contract and wants to become an Arsenal legend, he revealed in France-Football.
PV4 makes some illuminating comments about past failures in the Champions League.
He also says that Arsene Wenger would never be allowed complete control of the French national team if accepted that job.
He reckons one of the secrets of Arsenal’s success is that the privileged, protected environment that Wenger creates around his squad allows players to concentrate on their football without distractions.
However, the perfectionist boss constantly reviews individual performances on video,and frequently asks his stars to improve certain aspects of their game.
The Patrick Vieira Interview takes up eight pages in today’s France-Football.
This is one of an occasional series, where the magazine arranges for selected readers to meet the superstars.
Fans send in questions, the best are chosen, and those fans enjoy a tete-a-tete with Zinedine Zidane or Marcel Desailly.
That such a meeting should take place at all these days is remarkable. It shows a mutual love of the game, a genuine respect for the players, and a degree of imagination and organisation by the magazine.
We don’t do this sort of thing in England. We are too lazy, too dumb, too cynical to make the effort.
On Thursday September 19th a dozen readers came over from France, spent four hours with Vieira near his Hampstead home, and heard about the depth of his commitment to AFC.
“For me, it would be a much stronger feeling feeling to win the Champions League with Arsenal than with ManchesterUnited or Real Madrid. That’s the way I see things. I have started from nothing, and to win the greatest of all trophies with this club would be extraordinary.
Laughing, Vieira said, “Here’s a scoop, I have entered negotiations to extend my contract, which expires in 2004. I am taking part in talks to find a common ground and I cannot see any reason why I shouldn’t stay.”
Vieira was not at his best last season, even though Arsenal won the double, but he has sounded less restless since leaving agent Marc Roger and joining Jerome Anderson’s Sports Entertainment & Media group.
Recently, like Sol Campbell, Vieira has come out of the shadow of retired skipper Tony Adams, and is playing with supreme authority in England’s most exciting team.
“I love London, I feel at ease there, I can push my trolley in the supermarket without being bothered,” he says.
“If I want to go to a club, a cinema or have a walk, I am free, free to live my life as I wish.That is why I can work with a maximum of serenity,and do my jobin good conditions.”
He says that Arsenal now have a young squad in which the players have developed an “automatic” rapport with each other on the pitch.
“You feel that the squad is serene, strong and close to each other.We won’t be bad this year.We’re still beating every record in the league. Arsenal has made a lot of effort to be where it is now, even if I think we’ve still got to go up a couple of notches to be really at the top.”
The big No.4 admits that the team has had a slight inferiority complex against some continental heavyweights.
“Our ambitions are clear: win the league and the Champions League. Last year, unbeaten away in the league, we have experienced many difficulties away from our base in the Champions League.
“Probably because, in that competition, we were not enough aware of our worth. Consequentially, we gave too much importance to the other team.
“In the league, we know our opponents, we know their worth,that we are better than they are, and that we are going to win.
“In the Champions League, for example against Bayern, even if they are better than us, we played within ourselves because it was Bayern. We did not dare to create the difference,to play our game, and we missed it.”
Wenger, he says, is always supportive, and a football addict who spends his time watching match videos, looking for ways to fine-tune individuals and teamwork.
“Take my case; he knows me better than I think he does. Then he always wants you to improve. We often talk together, and he tells me, ‘Pat, you’ve got to do that better.’
“He’s somebody open, intelligent, with whom you can talk about anything, movies or politics.He’s interested in anything.He has assistants, but he does everything on the pitch, he takes care of the coaching routines.
“And he totally respects our private life. He lets you live your life, knows what to ask and what notto ask.Arsene is also able to take any player and to tell him whathis strengths and weaknesses are, mentally, physically,tactically. He carries all the statistics in his head – and he’s constantly listening to us.”
Having tasted international football glory in France 98 and Euro 2000, Vieira now harbours a deep desire to be remembered as one of the finest Arsenal players of all time.
“For me, the legend, to make my mark in the history of the club, to be one of its great players, that is also an ambition.Because,when I come back to watch a game in 10-15 years time, I know people will remember what I have accomplished for the club.
“In England, the respect for the ex-players is something that people take seriously.”
He says that no manager of France could have as much control of the team as Wenger now enjoys in his present job, and that in some ways Roger Lemerre, sacked after the World Cup, was a convenient scapegoat for the failure in Korea in June.
“With Les Bleus, there are too many people who are of no use,who are there to pretend, who give their opinion when they’re not asked to.At Arsenal, the coach is the boss.He takes care of everything.The job of a manager is to take decisions, to surround himself with people he trusts. I do not think that Wenger would have had this freedom.”
ARSENAL have come a long way from the last time they were in Auxerre with George Graham, in March 1995, when they squeezed out a 1-0 win.
Those gritty displays were commendable and took Arsenal to consecutive European Cup Winners Cup Finals, but, as most people now agree, Vieira and company are playing football from a different planet at the moment.
Olivier Dacourt said at the weekend that if Arsenal played Real Madrid now, Arsenal would win.
That’s hypothetical.I never get involved in that kind of talk. Because football doesn’t work like that.
Arsenal’s task is to win in Auxerre tonight and show that their 4-0 victory in Eindhoven was no flash in the pan.
After the PSV game everyone in Europe will be looking at the Arsenal result to see if they can sustain last week’s brilliance.
It’s October now and there’s plenty of time for Real Madrid.
If Dacourt had stopped to think he would have realised that Arsenal will need Robert Pires for that game.
October 1st 2002.
PS
Philippe Auclair told me most of this on September 19th and asked me to keep quiet till now.
The translation is his.Merci, mon ami.