Originally posted by giggsgirl:
<strong>Hi Jopub, nice to see you back. I prefer your postings any day to those of Gillespie!
Sorry, I just don`t like Patrick Vieira. I feel Arsenal and the Manager let themselves down giving the captaincy to such a petulant, slag-merchant as Vieira. Roy Keane has a big mouth but he uses it to spur on the team - Keano never went on holidays and slagged off his club for not being ambitious, signing `boys`, not doing this or that and all from the safety of remote USA.
NO United player who mouthed off the way Vieira did through his agent would EVER wear the captain`s armband. I don`t respect the way Arsenal and Arsene jumped to attention and gave Paddy a new toy after he spat the dummy.
Contrary to what some Arsenal supporters think, there were loads of MU supporters praying Vieira would not join. Including me.</strong><hr></blockquote>
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Morning and thanks gg
Well I have to say I am in 'backward compatible agreement' if there is such a thing !.
Truth is when all that 'Real' / transfer / and contract stuff was going down mmmmm... what 18 months ago I wanted shot of Paddy myself . He was utterly undermining the camp and showing he was at heart a real mercenary . He was also underminig to Arsene to the point wheer our manger also thought if I can't keep our mos influential / best, most pivotal player I can't really do the job and even gave him a doubt about keeping the job Moreover his performances at the start of last season were abysmal . As you know these things spread and you could see the club , not only the first eleven, were burdened with the whole affair .
As for captaincy material he was actually never that imo although to compare with Tony was unfair .
BUT BUT BUT .........
It would seem AW managed to convince Paddy that his bread WAS buttered at Highbury .
I won't go into the full details or I'd be here all day BUT I have atheory as to Vieira's problem at the time and it was due largely to one game - the Cup final loss to Liverpool . We'd come second in everything since the double in 98/99 and we played fantastic in that final with Vieira in awesome mood . As you know we lost it in the last 7 mins Owens brilliant poaching ( well done him ) . This particular loss really hit Patrick and it hammered him making him think we can played like that and STILL not win anything . With best mate Zinadine in the other ear telling him how he shold play at Real for billions it was in retrospect surprising he did not go .
Anyway Arsene did the best managerial talk of his career and made him believe he should give it one more shot.
He still did not play at hos best for the first half of last season but plugged away . Arsene signed HIS contract which told me he knew PV was staying .
Then another factor came into it - The return of Tony Adams . As TA got back he took over the captaincy EVERY time . Actually he was magnificent even though he played few games . His most important contribution was with Vieir . In many of the latter games last year TA often took Vieira aside (particularly at Bolton away0 and gave him very public middle of the pitch bollockings. You could see Patrick was more than shocked by this treatment .
Paddy then terminated the relationship with his agent - One hell of a good move .
The belief returned towards the latter end of the season, the weight of responsibility actually helped his game, the inclusion of the much improved Edu helped too as someone else who could hold the ball with him . His disciplinary side improved beyond belief .
In short he had been given a lesson in captaincy in greed , in life, by Arsene, by Tony and his teamates who made him believe it WOULD HAPPEN for him - AT ARSENAL .
It has been fascinating watching his transformation as he has learnes that to captain and lead others you MUST have certain prerequisite qialities and to my and many others amazement he has attained these WITHOUT most importantly losing the fire that makes him NOW arguably the best midfield player in the world .
He has with now, the world class Silva at his side returned, to the form of previous years without the stupidity .
So there it is giggsgirl a transformed player and ( although you wont ever fully change him - thank God )a more mature and responsible man , who is now also a much more 'Tony Adams presence style' captain.
As you will see next week
Jopub
