july 28th
Well, as I’m sure you’re all aware now lots of papers and press agencies are reporting that Patrick Vieira has agreed personal terms with Real Madrid and the only thing left now is for the two clubs to agree a fee. This story first appeared in Marca, which some people have written off as the Spanish equivalent of The Sun or The Mirror.
Not quite true, I’m afraid. While there’s always going to be a bit of sensationalism and …erm….artistic licence involved when you’re publishing a football paper 7 days a week, you have to remember that Madrid will actively use Marca to run stories they feel will be beneficial to the club, and the journalists at the Spanish football dailies have far greater access to the club, players and staff than any newspaper here would have.
I’m not saying what Marca is reporting is true, I’m just saying it’s wrong to dismiss it so quickly. Plus players agreeing terms before a move is common practice nowadays.
Anyway, it seems Madrid have let Vieira’s people know what’s on offer and they’ve received a thumbs-up from the Vieira camp. Emilio Butragueño, sporting director of Madrid, said “Patrick Vieira is a very interesting and important player for us and for our club. Such a process is a long one but I believe that this coming week will be a significant one with regard to our move for him.”
So there you go, make of it what you will, but hopefully we’ll reach some kind of conclusion to this thing at some stage in the next few days. Marca are saying a deal could go through today, while Steve Stammers in the Standard suggest Arsenal will ask Vieira to make his position clear once and for all in a meeting today.
Unsurprisingly there’s little else of much interest. Ipswich Town are interested in taking Justin Hoyte on loan for the season. I suppose if this deal goes through we can infer that there’s is definitely a right back coming to the club, and Newcastle’s bid for Portugal’s Miguel seems to put an end to their interest in Trabelsi, so we’ll see what happens there.
That’s it. More when it happens.
