Juve to unveil Vieira

Juventus will unveil new signing Patrick Vieira this morning.

The France midfielder clinched a £13.7m (€19.9m) move from Arsenal to the Italian champions yesterday.

“Juventus will unveil new signing Patrick Vieira at noon (Central European Standard Time - 11am Irish time) on Friday at the club’s headquarters in Turin,” said a statement on the club’s website, www.juventus.it.

Vieira has signed a five-year contract with the Bianconeri.

Juventus coach Fabio Capello, who coached Vieira at AC Milan during the 1995-96 campaign, is thrilled with his arrival.

“Vieira is a very important player,” said Capello. “At the heart of midfield, his presence is felt not only for his technical value but for his physical quality. Vieira brings something extra that the new signings have to bring.”

The Frenchman only made two league appearances under Capello at the San Siro, but Capello was nevertheless impressed by the player.

“He was young and his path was blocked by (Marcel) Desailly and (Demetrio) Albertini back then,” said Capello.

“But you could already see that he had quality, otherwise I wouldn’t have considered him as (Frank) Rijkaard’s heir.”

Juventus pipped Capello’s old club, Milan, to the Scudetto last season and he says they are no in an excellent position to defend the crown.

“Once again, like last year, we have achieved our primary aim that we had wanted in the transfer market,” he said.

“I congratulate our executives (Luciano) Moggi, (Antonio) Giraudo and (Roberto) Bettega, who have worked really well.”