Arsenal: Patrick Vieira reports hint at disturbing trend

While Arsenal are seemingly dead-set on Mikel Arteta, the true model of what they need – Patrick Vieira – is being left high and dry again.

Arsenal’s quest to appoint a manager before the World Cup starts on June 14th is an ambitious one, and one that has them capering towards one name – Mikel Arteta. It is not a widely-accepted name, as his inexperience and, for lack of a better word, Wenger-ist ideals are not exactly what many see as a challenge to the club’s inability to compete.

The sad part about this is where it is reportedly leaving Patrick Vieira, a club legend who has done so much for this club.

According to Sky sources which have yet to be properly confirmed, Arsenal reached out to Vieira about the managerial position, but it amounted to little more than a “token gesture,” which left Vieira upset.

This was the extent of the report. The speculation that can be drawn from this smidgen of information (if you can even call it that) is limitless, but it would be purely that – speculation. So rather than delve into the meaningless practice of speculation, I will instead point out that, well, this wouldn’t be the first time that Vieira was unhappy with how his former club handled his managerial potential.

Rewind to 2016. Vieira, who was just getting settled into life with New York City FC in MLS, after having served in a smaller capacity at Manchester City and not Arsenal, spoke up about how disappointed he was by the lack of inclusion that he and former players received from their long-time club, after their tenure as a player. His words:

"It’s a bit sad to not see old players in Arsenal’s staff and I’m not talking about the first team. There’s only Freddie Ljungberg. They love the club. After that, it’s not because we played at Arsenal that we deserve to be manager. All is earned but the desire is there"

Since then, Jens Lehmann has also been added as a first team coach, but Vieira’s point seemed to be more geared towards his own situation, and not receiving any sort of guidance from the club regarding his future in coaching.

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This was the first instance of Vieira openly speaking about being disappointed in what could be termed a lack of inclusion, specifically on his part, with the club that he had captained and loved.

As such, it isn’t so unfathomable to think that maybe he is receiving that same inexplicable treatment, though, yet again, there wouldn’t be any particular explanation as to why that might be.

Whatever is happening here, I hope that Vieira is, at the very least, offered the position. It is completely within his realm to decline it if he sees himself at New York City FC, but to not even offer him the job is a slap in the face, especially if Mikel Arteta ends up getting it.

When you compare Vieira and Arteta, you’re essentially comparing a man who was everything that was right about Arsenal in his playing days, and found immense success with the club, as contrasted with Arteta, who was everything that was wrong with the club at a time when they weren’t finding success.

And while that doesn’t necessarily mean that their managerial careers would go the same way, it’s hard to justify this kind of thing to a fanbase who have had to sit through a decade of steady decline. Vieira has managerial cojones, he’s proven it already. Arteta hasn’t proven anything. And until he does, all we will have to judge the appointment off of is what he was able to do with his time at the club. Which wasn’t much.

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Vieira is completely different. I don’t understand why he was never offered a coaching job at Arsenal and why he had to go to Manchester City to get that experience. I will understand it even less if Arteta, who did the exact same thing, gets the job ahead of Vieira. All we can do now is hope these reports aren’t true.