‘Nostalgic’ Pires to say goodbye

VILLARREAL midfielder Robert Pires is looking forward to getting the chance to say a proper goodbye to the Arsenal fans when he takes on his old club in the quarter-finals of the Champions League tonight.

The 35-year-old spent six hugely successful seasons at Highbury, and made his last appearance for the Gunners in the 2006 Champions League final when he was substituted in an early tactical change following the sending off of goalkeeper Jens Lehmann.

Such an exit was not the way Pires wanted to bring the curtain down on an Arsenal career which had seen him help guide Arsene Wenger’s side through an unbeaten Premier League campaign in 2003/2004.