Soccer: ‘I will never try to hurt somebody for nothing’

WHEN Arsene Wenger became Arsenal coach in summer 1996, the first thing he did was sign two midfield players.

One was Remi Garde from his hometown club Strasbourg, who was to become Arsenal's first foreign captain. The other was Patrick Vieira, who cost £3.5m from AC Milan.

Though no-one had heard of Vieira in England, he had already carved his reputation in France where he played one season for Cannes before moving to Milan, whose then vice-president Adriano Galliani declared: "With his body, his physical skills and his ability, he's the prototype of the midfielder of the future.

"Vieira can redefine the position."

Since joining Arsenal, Vieira has done exactly that. His performance two weeks ago in Arsenal's 2-0 win over Lokomotiv Moscow was a case in point.

Still only half-fit, he dominated the match and after 67 minutes ran 15 yards to dispossess Dmitry Loskov and launch a counter-attack. Ten seconds later, Arsenal had scored their second to kill off the game.

It's a far cry from the scene after his first training-session at Arsenal, when the players and backroom staff were rounded up and addressed by an emotional captain Tony Adams. Vieira's English was poor, and he was not sure what Adams had said.

Physiotherapist Gary Lewin found a French-English dictionary and pointed to the word 'alcoholic'. "It was pretty surreal," remembered Remi Garde. "We'd just turned up and the mythical emblem of the club had told us all he was an alcoholic. We wondered what the hell we were doing."

Vieira ended up learning a huge amount from Adams, who recently began his managerial career at Wycombe Wanderers. Now it is the Frenchman who is the Arsenal captain, the club's leader and on-pitch inspiration. He admitted that it has been a difficult task following Adams.

"When I joined, the club was all about Tony and the other English players like Steve Bould, Martin Keown, Lee Dixon, Nigel Winterburn and David Seaman," Vieira explained.

"They represented the spirit of the team and that spirit has never disappeared. The English mentality remained, and that is crucial to our progress and, in my opinion, our success.

"The French players have adapted to that mentality. Foreign players may bring their technique, their tactical awareness, but without the grit and fighting spirit that you see here, it might come to nothing."

It is Vieira's fighting spirit that has caused him the most trouble since his arrival in England he has been sent off eight times, the last of which came when he kicked out at Ruud van Nistelrooy during Arsenal's goalless draw with Manchester United in September.

The violent scenes that followed the final whistle saw five Arsenal players suspended on FA charges but of most concern to Arsenal fans was Vieira's fierce reaction. "I know the difference between good and evil, right and wrong," he says now. "I realised I had to change my game.

"Also, I have the good fortune to have people around me who helped me understand I had made mistakes. Once you can accept that, you can work on yourself.

"But it was important not to lose the aggression in my game, that's what is my strength. I am still the same. I have a role in football that is very thankless, working for others.

"But one of the most important things I ever did in my career was to understand that. If there's a 50-50 ball, I'm never going to pull out of the challenge. That's what my game is about. The day I stop having that desire to win the ball, to win those challenges, I'm finished.

"Taking into account my position on the field, it's very important to be a bad loser. You have to want to win very ball.

"But I'm not a dirty player. I will never try to hurt somebody for nothing. I had to channel my aggression, and learn not to react to provocation. And I think I've done that or certainly made a lot of progress."

As team-mate Robert Pires put it: "Patrick is provoked by opposing players throughout every game. He doesn't understand why and it upsets him. Fortunately, he has an amazing temperament and that is why he is a great leader who is idolised by the Arsenal fans."

Part of the change in Vieira's temperament has come from his cricket-loving girlfriend Sheryl.

Friends admit he has calmed down since they got together, although he put his new-found serenity down to another factor away from the pitch. "Playing against Senegal in the opening match of the World Cup made me realise I had to go back there.

"Every year I'd been putting it off, but the older I got the more I wondered about my origins. The place where I grew up, which were becoming a bit vague in my mind, and the friends I hadn't seen for so long."

So he returned in the summer to look at the Diambars school for children he has set up with former France goalkeeper Bernard Lama in Dakar.

Diambars means champions in Senegalese dialect and the school's mission statement is 'to create the Diambars Institute for the training of tomorrow's high-level footballers and contribute to the education and school attendance of children in Africa and the development of their countries through their passion football and their identification with their champions'.

Vieira was greatly moved by the adoring crowds that welcomed him. "I feel Senegalese and French, not uniquely one or the other," he said.

"Setting up a training school in Senegal is like a cherry on a cake for me, it's something that touches me. Helping kids, helping the African people, what better thing can I do? I may well have had a European education, but I will always be African. My heart will always be there."

Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson is known to have approached Vieira about a move to Old Trafford 18 months ago, despite recently labelling the Arsenal team as 'arrogant'.

Vieira stayed at Arsenal and resented the slur: "The arrogance thing is just a part of jealousy. Last season and this one too, we played and we play very nice football.

"Last season we managed to string some good stuff together and when you play like that, obviously you enjoy it.

"And that shows. On the field we were happy with the way we were playing maybe sometimes our delight was too evident, perhaps we were a bit too enthusiastic about it and maybe certain people didn't appreciate that. But I don't think we ever showed any disrespect to any team.

"If we manage to play like we did for large parts of last season, then we'll do well again we tried to play the most attractive football possible for four or five months we played really well, but we came off the rails a bit near the end and weren't able to grind out wins when we needed them.

"We have to be aware that it's not just about beautiful football.

"But we have experience on our side, we know each other well and we know each other's game; we know our strengths and weaknesses, we're a team. There's a great atmosphere at the club and I still think we're on an upward curve. We have the players to go far and it's up to us to realise our dreams."

Just as Vieira turned down United, so he turned down Real Madrid this summer. He was offered a contract worth £2.7m per year more than three times what Real midfielder Claude Makelele was earning.

It was only when Vieira told his France team-mate about the offer that Makelele demanded more money from Real: when they refused, he ended up leaving for Chelsea.

"I find it difficult to understand how Real Madrid let Claude Makelele go when he's their best player," Vieira said.

"It was a lack of recognition. It seems like it was just a question of money. I could understand that if it was with another club but not with Real Madrid. After seeing the way they treated Claude, I certainly have no regrets over not joining them. In a way, it even reassures me. I made the right choice."

Thierry Henry has often spoken of his desire to win the Champions League with Arsenal and fans will be pleased to learn that Vieira is no different.

"For me, it would be a much stronger feeling to win the Champions League with Arsenal than with Manchester United or Real Madrid," he said.

Arsenal's failure in Europe has hurt Vieira. France colleagues Zinedine Zidane and Makelele (at Real Madrid), Bixente Lizarazu (Bayern Munich) and Lilian Thuram (Juventus) have played European finals in recent years after winning their domestic titles.

Vieira has had to watch as Manchester United have reached the last eight of the Champions League for seven seasons running; in that time Arsenal have made it just once.

Pires has blamed Wenger's inflexible tactics; Sylvain Wiltord said the team worry too much about it and aren't relaxed when they play. Vieira's view is different: "We make mistakes in the Premiership, but in the Champions League the quality is different from the Premiership.

"We need to be more careful. Champions League games are much more difficult and the opposition are tougher and tactically more clever.

"In England, there is still this notion that teams go out to win games, but in Europe teams know us very well and are more tactically and technically aware. In the Premiership we are almost unbeatable at home.

"Maybe it's psychological, but it's difficult to explain. We have to find the remedy.

"I don't know what the solution is," he continued. "Maybe we're a team that's a bit too impatient. We want to score as quickly as possible and we have tendency to push and we need to better control our efforts. We have a team designed for attack but we have to learn to be more patient."

The message from the captain, then, is perseverance.

"I have been at Arsenal for a long time now and I'm implicated in what happens at the club," he continued.

"The long-term projects interest me. I have seen the club's progression and what we have done deserves recognition. We can be proud of what we have achieved. We have been first or second in the league the past six seasons and that's an amazing record.

"At Arsenal, everyone knows his place, and everyone gets on with his job; you know where you stand. Tradition and respect are big words, words that have meaning, at Arsenal."

The spirit is similar in the France camp where Vieira, as vice-captain, cannot wait for the showdown against England in Euro 2004.

France were the only side to qualify with a 100% record and showed in their recent 3-0 away drubbing of Germany that they deserve to be one of the favourites for next summer. "I really wanted to be drawn against England, quite frankly," Vieira added.

"It's something I've been waiting a long time for. A lot of us play in the Premier League and a game against the English was something we had started to talk about amongst ourselves.

"It's about time we came face to face again, and although we haven't taken the mickey out of each other too much yet, when you see Thierry Henry taking on Sol Campbell during training, you can't help but think of Euro 2004."