Back in March we reported that Patrick Vieira could leave Manchester City in the summer as he looks to further his coaching career.
The former Arsenal captain has been heading up the under-21 set-up at the Etihad over the last couple of years but is understood to be on the lookout for a new challenge with negotiations over a contract renewal apparently stalling.
Naturally, given his relationship with Arsene Wenger and his success during nine years at Highbury, we wrote optimistically that the 38-year-old might finally return to the Gooner bosom.
It appears that Patrick himself did once harbour hopes of a role at London Colney, however, when the opportunity arose at the time of his retirement four years ago Arsene didn’t pick up the phone.
Touching on the situation in L’Equipe [quotes translated by ESPN] Vieira explained:
“Everywhere I go, people say that to me [why did I not return to Arsenal]. It was out of the question for me to put myself forward. Why would I have done?
“When I stopped playing, I had an offer from City, and I didn’t get a call from Arsene. If he had wanted me to work with him, he would have asked me.
“It was a disappointment for me, both from the club but also Arsene. I gave a lot to Arsenal, and the club and Arsene gave me a lot too.”
After a glittering career it’s unsurprising that Vieira is being touted as a potential star-coach of the future. So much so that with Manuel Pellegrini on the brink at City, he’s even been tipped to take over first team duties for next season.
“There is a manager in place so I am not asking myself that question,” Vieira made clear, when asked about such speculation.
“I will soon talk to my bosses. Our relationship is excellent, and I feel very good at the club. Why not continue to flourish with the youth team?”
Staying at City isn’t Vieira’s only option, as he went on to explain: “I don’t say ‘No’ to France. There are a lot of great players in France. I love Marco Verratti, the best player in Ligue 1 by far. There’s also Nabil Fekir, who’s really very good.
“Actually, I have asked Jean-Michel Aulas if I can go to Lyon to learn about their youth academy policy. In fact, I have not set myself a place nor an age: 38, 45… It doesn’t matter.
“If an interesting project comes up tomorrow, I will study it carefully while also talking to the people at City, with whom I have a transparent relationship.
“The condition is the solidity of the project and the people — the presidents especially — who are leading it, as well as the quality of the structures. I will not go into something if I risk finding myself all alone if things don’t go well.”
It remains to be seen whether Arsenal will get in touch with Vieira. We can but hope.
As our resident youth team expert, Jeorge Bird, explains on the Arsecast this week, it certainly seems odd that we’ve never tried to lure him back south, especially in light of the struggles of our under-21 and under-18 squads in the last couple of years.
Viiieeiraaa wooooah.. I believe this guy will make a better coach than Henry. Still love them both, tho.
Ps. Fu*k Maureen.
You can’t guess who is better than who that easily.. Just because he captained us to glory doesn’t mean he will be better than Henry. Remember.. as much as we all hate Irish lapdog.. He was a failure too and he was United’s very own Vieira.
You can’t say Vieira would be a better manager than Henry because he captained us to glory during our most dominant period. Take Vieiras united counterpart his Irish lap dog.. he didn’t do so great. did he??
Sign him up for sure. As soon as possible.
Maybe Arsene didn’t sign him up because he threatened to quit Arsenal for like 4 summers in a row…
stop that filth. threatened to quit arsenal? show me the evidence…not media….
best player in the world in his position for a decade….those who chose makelele have no clue about football…just a watercarrier…
vieira would defned, attack, dribble , shoot, head and toy with roy with keep ups ! legend! warrior! leader!
the only midfielder i have seen who would break banks of four going right through them ..with ball at his feet…
That was my thinking as well. He’s not exactly a trustworthy character.
Isn’t there a case for our former players jumping the gun to get into coaching jobs? Wengers and Klopps don’t happen overnight. Shouldn’t the Vieiras and Henrys work climb through the coaching ranks just like they did with their playing careers?
KLOPP IS NOT IN THE SAME BRACKET AS WENGER.
Can we all stop calling him anything other than an above average coach with a one trick pony that he’s not afraid to flog.
What’s his one trick pony..? Playing entertaining, direct, fast football? I wholely agree that he’s not on Wenger’s level, and there are certainly some doubts over him given Dortmund’s season, but to write him off after one bad year is as unfair as hailing him as the successor to Arsene after a few good ones. I’m intrigued to see what he does in his next job, as- this season aside- he does seem like he could be a good fit for us at some point. Not now though.
Klopp’s one-trickness is that he’s a fantastic motivator. Once that dips or fails in its effectiveness it’s pretty difficult to get back. Which is the main reason BvB had their appalling run this season.
That he managed to get it back (and a little good luck in the cup) is to his credit.
That said, he’s done remarkably well for the Bundesliga’s most prominent selling club.
Would I mind seeing him at AFC? It’d be entertaining, that’s for certain. And fun to watch. But he’s not a micro-manager like Pep or Wenger. In that sense he’s pretty unique.
saying Arsene’s a micro-manager like pep might not be correct either.
Wenger is NOT a micro-manager. Not even close, in fact he’s very much of the opposite philosophy, that the players should act professionally and govern themselves. By contrast read any Guardiola biography, including the latest one about his first year at Bayern, and THAT is a micro-manager.
Disagree. Wenger is renowned for being involved in things that other managers aren’t the least bit bothered with: catering, design, appointments, diet, ambience, architecture, player lifestyle, sports science, finance … the list goes on and on and on. It’s who he is. He has ideas and he’s involved in their implementation. Moreover, it wasn’t so long ago that some of this was regarded negatively as it was seen (assumed) to cause bottlenecks and consequently formed a part of the argument to see him move on. If choosing the crockery and cutlery the players use and the lighting and carpet design… Read more »
He’s very detail-oriented – I wouldn’t say micro manager.
Anyway, it is absolutely true and well-documented that while he may be very detail-oriented elsewhere, on the pitch, he’s a firm believer that players should manifest themselves by their own qualities. Where he places those qualities with shapes in mind is, again, very detail-oriented. Micro-managing? Nah.
Are you saying he’s a poor manager because his direct rivals repeatedly poached his best players and some of the new players (e.g. Immobile) did not produce?
Nope – i said he was above average.
He’s a Tim Sherwood with a clue, A Harry Redknapp with a grasp of tactics
“Facking ran…. araaaund….. over there”
“Than faacking ran…. a bit back there.”
Do you remember that Wenger was sacked by Monaco earlier in his career? Or do you remember the papers said “Arsene Who?” when he first arrived? Klopp who?
Although I don’t think Klopp is right for us now, I do like him. He stuck with Mainz (admittedly after taking them down first) and has put in a shift at BVB but I think he needs a few years with a small/med PL team before he’s the finished article. I have a nasty feeling he’ll move to $iteh and that will knock him back a few years but long terms I think he could do well with us & vice-versa.
Vieira did that, he did learn coaching at youth level. However Wenger cannot call all former players. There are Bergkamp, Campbell, Pires and now Henry. Had he had Vieira as assistant and Arsenal had a bad run, the media would have started rumours that he would be replaced by Vieira. What a prospect of great coach, Vieira is.
By taking jobs at clubs coaching instead of managing, and taking on roles in the youth setup there?
It’s as if that is exactly what Vieira is doing.
Has Paddy gone all Marlon Brando on us?
Agreed… Looks like City have been paying him in pies…
Laurence Fishburne.
Vieira 2003 “I need to leave because I want to win more trophies and I just cannot see that happening at Arsenal. Certainly not over the next few years, anyway. Comparing Arsenal to the big clubs in Europe this season is going to be quite ridiculous. I do not honestly see Arsenal finishing in the top five in the league – and you can forget the Champions League.” Vieira 2015 “I didn’t get a call from Arsene. If he had wanted me to work with him, he would have asked me. “It was a disappointment for me, both from the… Read more »
Maybe if he really loves the club he’d try to contact Wenger about a coaching position instead of sitting around and waiting for a phone call? At least by his words it sounds like he’s Yaya’s dad.
He does come over as a bit of a ‘prima donna’.
Why couldn’t he call AW and ask rather than wait for a call?
Vieira wasn’t even thinking about leaving Arsenal in 2003. The timing made your quote suspicious. He left at the end of 2005. In 2003, he was a happy warrior for Arsenal. I agree he thinks Arsenal owes him a lot. When he left in 2005, he said Arsenal didn’t try to retain him hard enough.
You are right about the timing, but wrong about the timing too – It was actually June 2001 http://www.xtratime.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-38593.html The summer before a double year. You are wrong about the happy warrior in 2003 bit – those quotes above lead to 2 summers of Vieira to Real and Man Utd Saga’s where our happy warrior – happily let himself get tapped up – he signed an extension about this time but in the build up to the invincible season we still had a saga of real madrid – several times that summer there were reports that he had signed a… Read more »
What did the Fabregas team win ? Not even the Carling Cup. Henry spearheaded our success but the leader on and outside the field : Vieira.
Isn’t that a different argument to the original one though? Your original point is he didn’t angle for a move but it’s well documented that the sagas’ annoyed Arsene and that towards the end Pat did engineer a move.
I totally agree with Rohith J. Being an excellent player doesn’t automatically make you great manager material. The requisite skill-sets are very different. Who here thinks Ronaldo or Messi will necessarily be even decent managers. And like Wenger said when asked about Henri, you need to go out there and take the burden of success/failure on your shoulders.
I don’t think Guardiola would be a manager if he’d had to come through the lower leagues and although he’s clearly top notch at tweeking an already very good team, I’m not sure he could dig a team a team out of the crap.
Aside from being coach at Barcelona B. Spanish reserve sides play in the same league system, and the season he was appointed as manager, they had just been relegated to division 3. So with a combination of a handful of reserve players, and players on Leyton Orients level, he got them up.
The clue is in the name “Barcelona B”. They may have a lot of youngsters but they don’t have many (if any) crap players and their facilities are a different level. And to compare our 1st div with the Spanish 3rd div is a serious over estimation of the Spanish leagues. More like our 2nd maybe even conference.
C. Ronaldo as coach… :p
that talented self-centered prick cannot coach anyone,
not sure of messi,
Come back Paddy and restore our youth teams to future glory. Legend!
I’d rather develop players for the first team than win at youth level. I mean, Vieira has brought through so many players that the City first team is bursting at the seams…
On reflection maybe not. But legend nonetheless in his pomp, for The Arsenal.
I’d trust Arsene’s judgment on this!
All them superstar under 21’s coming through the system at sheikh city. Yeah the list of clubs interested in Patricks Services must be very long.
I may be wrong but I thought he had a playing contract with City at the time but they needed him out the squad and off the wage bill so made up that position for him. Whatever happened I don’t think it’s as clear cut as he makes out.
This legends jump ship and and then expect a “call”? maybe your phone fell in the water Viera
Is anyone able tell me how many players Vieira has seen from his development teams get into City’s first team?
Big fat fucking zero Mark. At least you picked Micah Richards
Don’t forget that Joe Hart didn’t have dandruff problems while I was manager.
Harsh picture, he looks fat and 90.
Probably got a huuuge knob though.
Yep, it’s called Nasri!
Not sure why anyone wants him back.
He burned his bridges good ‘n proper and can go fuck himself with Roy Keane’s fist for all I care.
Don’t want. He said too many hurtful things when he was trying to leave. And maybe I’m issuing something but if you want a job somewhere, you send in your CV and ring/email a few times. You aren’t so frigging special and have no coaching accomplishments that they are going to run from pillar to post to contact you.
Firstly Seedorf and Inzaghi tarnished their legends at Milan so let’s appreciate how rare it is to find a legendary player who becomes a successful coach. Usually its the less celebrated players who manage it, so I’m holding out for Oleg Luhzny. Secondly, Patrick went to City for the money and titles while we were broke. If you’re such an Arsenal or Arsene loyalist then the day before he signs on for the City role he should have reached out to Arsene through 3rd parties at least! C’mon Patrick, whatever man. You were my footballing hero but these comments suck… Read more »
We have Luhzny! We have Luhzny! We have Luhzny from Ukraine!
It’s going to be Pascal Cygan, our next legendary French manager.
You heard it here first 😉
Great player but always likes to moan. Every year he flirted with the possibility of leaving Arsenal for Real Madrid and when we finally sold him, he says I didn’t want to leave.
That picture looks more like Fatrick Vieira, amirite?!
As my mum always says ‘If you can’t say anything nice (about your old club) don’t say fuck all’
Wooah Viera’s aged! That’s what working for City does to you. He isn’t proven material. No reason to think he can come in and work wonders. He will need more experience. I don’t think Klopp is that fantastic a manager as the media seems to think. He is a very good manager and clearly better than Viera. But the BUndesliga is somewhat less competitive. Aside from Bayern, the field is more or less wide open. That said, he did steer Dortmund in the CL well. If he learns from the chastening he recived this season, Klopp can elevate himself further.… Read more »
Okay, that is two Invincible Frenchies talking trash about Arsena;/Arsene. Waiting for Pires to break the trend.
Le prof clearly does not care for his apparent lack of intelligence. “A call?” after 3 summers of flirting with real and the likes? maybe u make the call Viera.
Honestly speaking, more than him, I would like to see Rosicky or Arteta by Wenger’s side in a few years, learning the art of coaching.
Seems Paddy’s simply doing to City now, what he did for us contract-wise.
Ie angling for a move away, suggesting he has options, putting big names in the frame.
Well, I’ll just remember the good times…
As much as I like Henry something tells me he won’t make a good manager. I don’t want Arsenal to make the same mistake as Liverpool (with Dalglish). We don’t want to make sentimental decisions. You get the feeling that Viera would make a better manager, perhaps he has better understanding of the game because he played in midfield. Anyway, they both have a long way to go before they manage at the top level. I wonder how Stojkovic is doing? There are hundreds of managers who have great qualities and can win with better resources so lets look for… Read more »
Thanks Vieira for your service to our great club. But I will go by Wenger’s judgment on who he needs as his coaching staff. Many legends have come and gone without making any impression. When time comes for Le Prof to move on we’ll see who the club recruits… Till then I back my team and the lads to do a good job. COYG! 4 more wins and we we’ll be second. That’s progress in my eyes.
recently read blogs think ospina is uninspiring, well he inspires me. well anything arsene does inspires me, even you andre santos