5 Reasons why we should sign Patrick Vieira
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 at 11:16AM 1) He possesses a wealth of experience and has a winning mentality.
2) It will murk the Arsenal fans to see an ex-player wearing our Lilywhite.
3) He will have a Davids effect, which will aid the squad on and off the pitch.
4) Has great technique and leadership skills.
5) Bargain signing for free.
That didn't feel quite right. Need to clear my head. Stick my finger down my throat.
Ok. Let's try this again.
5 Reasons why we should never sign Patrick Vieira
1) He's old. 5 years past his prime and discarded by them lot over there years back because Wenger knew the player was in decline. Has shown little in recent seasons to suggest he can have any kind of impact back in England. The fact he has won silverware and has done it whilst festering in the swamps of Highbury only tells me that his personal ambitions can not exactly be sitting high up in his list of priorities, let alone the ones Spurs have as a club looking to step up. And forgive me for being a traditionalist, but I'd much prefer a squad without him than one with him in it with the winning (dirty, cheating) mentality of an ex-gooner who got mentally battered by Roy Keane.
2) Signing an ex-Arsenal player who has struggled with injuries in the slow-paced Italian league and hardly played a full season for years will not murk a single gooner off as far as the rivalry with us is concerned. Sure, they would be angry to see one of their own - unquestionably a legend for them and a player that epitomises everything about their club (cheat, scum, insufferable personality) - wear our colours, but it will simply incite laughter to see us turn to a has-been as some form of inspiration to help us move forward. This is not like bringing Bentley or O'Hara to the Lane. Vieira is an ex-Arsenal captain and it's not like he's fucking them over and joining us in his prime now, is he?
3) The Davids effect? What, you mean piss off team-mates and get into punch-ups with younger players? Davids did some good at the club, but it's a fallacy to believe he was solely responsible in the way of a major uplift of form for the side. Watching videos of Dave Mackay would be more uplifting than having a player that has not a single quark of Tottenham in him pretend he cares about the success of the teams progress. Want to aid the team off and on the pitch? Sign a CM who is 24-27 years of age and can play as back-up to Palacios who will no doubt serve a ban or two for yellow cards during the season, which will leave us with a massive hole in central midfield if we don't have a proper understudy on the bench.
4) Great technique is something he possessed 5-6 years ago when playing in the fast paced Premier League. And you can still have great technique half a decade on and it can even make make you look good when you're playing in Serie A where you have plenty of time to light up a cigar and Twitter about the step-over you're about to do. Bring it back to the 1000mph hellmouth that is the EPL and you'll find yourself in a little spot of bother. A bit like Mr Magoo walking down a street in Pamplona during the Running of the Bulls festival. As for leadership skills, sure, he can lead himself downwards to the ground allowing gravity to embrace his falling body and hug the grass as he claims for a foul when one was not committed. Although I expect his ancient legs will give way to injury and be the main catalyst for further adventures on the turfs of England. Great leadership skills there. It's the missing link in our quest for turning us into contenders.
5) If you want something for free, then wait for the start of the season when no doubt we'll be treated to more raffle prizes at half-time when the club give away yet another Opus. £5M - £10M will get us a younger, hungrier battling midfielder with his whole career in front of him rather than behind him. The transfer market might be an over-bloated joke at the moment with any target we'd love being snapped up by the likes of City, but please let's not pretend there are no options out there. Christ, I'm almost missing Comolli. There, I said it out loud. He might have ballsed it up around 90% of the time with some of his inflated over-rated signings but at least he…actually, who am I kidding? He was crap. And I don't miss him. Even though someone without sight could have scouted Wilson Palacios as a must-have for the Spurs midfield I'm sure there are other players - in England and abroad - we can take a gamble on. We have scouts, right? We have You Tube, right?
Levy, Harry…don't force me into burning bagels outside the ground again. The hypocrisy hurts.
Never red. COYS.
Reader Comments (53)
Best. Post. Ever.
Genius rant.
"A bit like Mr Magoo walking down a street in Pamplona during the Running of the Bulls festival"
LOL.
Never red indeedy.
Finally someone talking sense on this subject. Henry can stick it up his arse too.
Its the one transfer story this summer that has given me nightmares. If it was Vieira from 4 seasons ago, fair enough but a Vieira from 4 seasons ago would never consider joining Spurs. The fact he is proves he is so far past his sell-by date, he probably has a new species of scum growing out of his knackered knees.
I blame Tim Sherwood.
Even Henry said he would never recommend that Viera come here....must mean he's looking out for us...if he had Arsenal's best interests in mind, he'd tell Patrick to sign here quick
and for the record, i really wish the time stamps were local time to the viewer...its a bad tease when I see I posted at 11:53am UK time when its 6:53am here....I start work at 3:45am eastern time though so I basically run on UK time anyway haha...
Is it too much to hope this is all just an over elaborate smokescreen and we're about to sign Robbie Savage?
I would rather have Lee Cattermole... Or even Pedro Mendes back lol.. rather than wheel out an overaged ex gooner looking for one last big pay cheque!!
THANK YOU!!
I can't believe the guff I'm hearing from fellow Spurs fans on this subject.
I've already had to endure Arsenal pisstakery on this - those of you who think we're somehow getting one over on them are deluded. It's hardly revenge for them taking our captain and best player away on a free. In fact, It doesn't even compare. They find it hilarious, trust me.
The bloke found Serie A too much, if you think that he'll somehow improve our squad then you really have been conditioned to accept shit by our years of mediocrity.
I don't even dislike him for the Arse connection, I just think buying a crocked knacker is asking for trouble. Especially one with a widely publicised attitude problem.
Cheers for the typically excellent musings, Spooky.
the man is a cock and makes our very own ledley king look fit as a fiddle!! cattermole would be a better signing and i dont even want him in our team! we should look a bit closer to home for midfield and we have a wealth of good players at our disposal especially with it being a world cup year, thudd and jenas will be wanting to board that plane to south africa even bentley will and they are just the guys that sit on the bench ffs!! we are definately looking at 4-4-2 now crouch has signed and lennon, palacios and modric are going to be definate starters so i say get joe cole in for the left buy a decent cb and that should do us, sell the prince, bent, hutton and chimbonda and we are done, looking forward to a cracking EPL season from top to bottom this year and just hoping our beloved team can finally break the mould but i for one wont be holding my breath lol COYS
You're a funny guy
Oops, I like your thinking. I'm hoping the whole pre-season is just another of Harry's practical jokes so Robbie would fit right in. I think Harry is enjoying the pre-season from the travel and holiday aspect with Peterborough being his choice for an exotic kebab.
Roll on the season when we can make some observations based on facts.
oops , it hurts to say ... yes mate your hoping for way too much ... but i m hoping with you that somebody in the club suddenly realises that it's not april the 1st and that our sense of humour is wearing very thin
loved the rant spooky , spot on ... it s a joke and frankly an insult to all of us
Let the "bonfire "of bagels begin !
STu b - Nail on head. There are so many other experienced players who can still ply their trade in the Prem, its a disgrace that this player is even a considered target. Might as well draft back Sol Campbell if this is the route we plan to take.
"Bonfire of Bagels"
I like it. I'm going to use that.
;)
I disagree.Someone like Viera will probably not be in the first team regularly. But if he brings a certain "winning" attitude and if this brushes off on others - then great. I have heard so many people saying we need a leader on the pitch. Well this man fits that bill. For too long, you get the feeling that "losing is ok" at Spurs - and that attitude needs to change, more than us getting better players. The likes of Jenas,Bentley and Huddlestone are good technical players but lack that winning drive. Davids and even Naybet brought that a few years ago. He would also be great for the likes of Bostock, Livermore etc
abe ... but the question at hand is : does he still posess that winning attitude or is he just picking up one last paycheck ... and don't tell me that with the funds we have we can not find another player with that kind of spirit
Hell , i would even prefere beckham then ... please do not shoot me for that one guys :-)
ps feel free spooky :-)
You make a convincing case, but which annoys you more; that Vieira is past it, or that he was a gooner? If he was ex-AnyoneElse would you be this much against his signing?
Why give a shit who he played for?
Who are these myriad £5-10m hard men midfielders? Cattermole is not ready, we don't need young blood in there, we need experience. If not Vieira then maybe Poulsen.
belgian, no beckham here please lol. if people think viera has an attitude problem, beckham has been a huge baby since his return here. already needed to call the waaaaahmbulance for him a couple times in like a week. and the last incident was apparently an englishman (wearing an england shirt) yelling at him so yeah...don't pin it all on us yanks lol
Poulsen is the way forward.
If Vieira is as great in the dressing room as some of our fans are trying to claim, why are Arsenal not looking to bring him back to improve THEIR youngsters? They sure as hell could do with some fighting spirit/winning mentality, right?
The notion that he'll come in and somehow universally install this much vaunted "winning mentality" is laughable.
Another year of cheering on a team that promise so much but give so little. Spurs are all talk, whether or not Vieira would help spurs I don't know but I do know they cannot string two passes together after viewing them get walked around the pitch by both Barcelona and Celtic reserves..... It was miserable last year and same again this. The game is not only about player but training and strategy of which I did not see any evidence of this weekend.
I wouldnt mind if we were 5th every season with a cup thrown in here and there but getting fifth twice sacking the most promising young manager in europe then going down the tubes last season was a farce, bring back Martin Jol let him finish his apprenticeship and what he started Harry is a great bloke but how many seasons are we going to gt out of him and who will replace him.... I guess the bst thing about this transfer period is It's been quiet.
One reason we should sign him: He always seemed to score at WHL (LOL)
Oh Christ no. He's past it. Why is it only us who can see it.
Or is it Sherwood who is a gooner in disguise who has Arry's ear?
If we can't even get a song for Jenas, there's no chance of Viera being accepted by the WHL faithful.
Brilliant post. Vieira's injury record and decline as a player, combined with the fact that he is ex-Scum, should be reason enough for us not to sign him.
Redknapp has spoken about how this would even up things with the Scum, for them taking Sol Campbell from us. What? How is taking a brilliant defender, at the peak of his career and worth around £15m in the transfer market, on a free, comparable to picking up Vieira on a free, three years after Wenger got rid of him, because he was clearly on the slide?