Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira is one of the greatest captains in the history of the game.
The Frenchman spent nine years at Highbury and was among their best – both on the pitch as a player and off it as a leader.
Vieira led Arsenal to three Premier League titles during his time at the club, and he also helped several young players develop.
One of them was Cesc Fabregas, and the Spaniard has now shed some insight into what sort of a captain Vieira was back in the day.
Patrick Vieira’s crazy way of preparing Arsenal squad for ‘war’
The Premier League 25 years ago wasn’t what it is today.
You can argue that the current game is much more tactical, and a lot depends on how the manager sets his team out rather than what the players can do on their own.
Tactics were important back in the day too, but the game was considerably more physical then, and many games were won and lost based on just how much you wanted it.
Vieira understood that very quickly after joining Arsenal, and he made sure every single one of his teammates realised that too.
Fabregas has revealed that in training a day before every big game, Vieira would kick a teammate or make a bad challenge just to rile them up and prepare them for ‘war’.
That led to some fights on the training pitch, but Fabregas says Vieira knew exactly what he was doing, and that helped Arsenal in games.
The Spaniard said on the Rest is Football podcast: “He was a great leader. I will always remember, before every big game – let’s say if we’re playing Man United on Saturday, the Friday morning prior to the game, he would kick someone in training and create a kind of tense moment for everyone to feel that ‘hey, in 24 hours we have a war’.
“I remember one time he did – I was going to say a great tackle but it wasn’t a great tackle – on Freddie Ljungberg and they started to fight, and then sometimes with Jens Lehmann etc.
“He knew exactly what he was doing. He was always defending his teammates on and off the pitch. And the presence that he had on the Saturdays when we were playing on the pitch was something that I haven’t seen from many players.”
Listen to ‘The Rest Is Football‘ wherever you get your podcasts.
The real reason why Vieira left Arsenal angrily in 2005
Vieira spent nine years as a Gunner from 1996 to 2005, and no Arsenal fan wanted to see him leave the club when he eventually did.
The Frenchman left the Gunners and joined Italian giants Juventus, and despite the rumours at the time, Vieira revealed in his autobiography that he actually didn’t want to leave.
The midfielder claimed that he was happy to accept the contract Arsenal had put in front of him, but one comment from then-vice-chairman David Dein angered him to the point that he wanted out.
As quoted by Sky Sports, Vieira claimed that Dein told him: “We are neutral. We are giving you the choice of deciding what you want to do.”
That made Vieira furious. “I was angry, surprised and upset,” he said. “I had been at the club nine years. I knew if Arsenal really wanted to keep a player, they fought tooth and nail, they didn’t leave it up to him to decide.
“I asked Dein what he meant by giving me the choice. He repeated that the offer was generous. To me, that wasn’t the issue. It wasn’t about a good or bad contract. The word that swung the decision for me was ‘neutral’.
“‘If that is how it is,’ I told him, ‘whatever happens now, I’m off. And I’ll go to the club that I choose because I will be able to choose’.
“The club had made its feelings known and now it was a straightforward decision.”
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