July 14th
Happy 14th of July to you all. We’ll start this morning with Vieira news and it looks like his time is up, Unofficial reports in Italy suggested Juventus had come to an agreement with Arsenal having offered money and nearly all their players as part of the deal while it’s being reported that Real Madrid are sniffing around too. Most papers are saying that Vieira has received no encouragement from the club or the manager about staying with The Sun reporting Arsene Wenger said last night that ‘It’s up to him’.
Now, I know some people are going to think that we’re crazy to let him go but there’s no finer student of his players than Arsene Wenger and you can be quite sure if he’s happy to let him go then we have to accept his judgement. We have to think that perhaps we’ve seen the best of him, like we’d seen the best of Merson, Overmars, Petit and pretty much any player around the 30 mark he’s let go. We also have to think that we wouldn’t let him go without having lined up somebody to replace him. I think part of this might the be the precocious Catalan talent we have in our side and allowing him more room to make the first team place his own. Finally, we’ll be without a captain. To me Vieira was never a great captain. It’s one thing to say ‘I do my talking on the pitch’ but too often in recent times he’s done most of his talking off the pitch and not enough on it. The obvious candidate to replace him is Thierry Henry who would lead by example on the pitch, would certainly be more vocal than Vieira and, although I’m not sure I fully agree with it, would be part of a movement to ensure his future is at Highbury.
If Vieira does go he’ll rightly be remembered as a great player. Those surging runs, those long legged tackles and that fighting spirit that epitomised the majority of his time at the club will hopefully be what people remember him for. And that’s the right way for it to be.
Myles seems to think Kolo would be the perfect replacement for Vieira but I’m not sure I agree. I love Kolo and he’s certainly got the heart and physique to play in central midfield but I think it’s easier to find a decent midfielder than a decent central defender these days. It will be very interesting to see if the boss tries to replace him with a ‘name’ or with someone who will bolster the squad and add cover for a Gilberto-Cesc parternship, which might just lack a little physicality.
In other news Juventus say they’re not interested in Robert Pires, Chelsea are still cunts having released a statement in defence of their loudmouth manager and my chum Goodplaya nicely rebuffs their paranoid ramblings.
Funnily enough I dreamt Vieira and my cousin Padraig was used as a makeweight in a deal which brought me to Roma for £90,000 a week and when I came home nobody was at all impressed. Bastards.
