Vieira's out of reach but who will get him first?

14 April 2012

David Dein greeted Real Madrid's latest attempt to lure Patrick Vieira away from Arsenal with weary resignation. Each summer, for the last six or seven years, the Arsenal vice-chairman has had to fend off similarly covetous approaches from around Europe for Highbury's much admired cast list of players.

This latest attempt by the Spanish giants to sign Vieira may turn out to be the most serious, but that guarantees a resolute response from the Premiership champions who are desperate to keep their influential captain.

Club officials have been anxiously trying to track Vieira down at his holiday retreat in Florida in the hope he would confirm his intention of leading the club's title defence.

Real Madrid are the most glamorous of the long list of top European clubs who regularly try to capitalise on Arsene Wenger's talent for turning anonymous young players of potential into world stars.

Vieira would be the first to concede that his rise to a place of prominence among the game's great players is due almost exclusively to Wenger, who made the French midfielder his first Arsenal signing in 1996.

At that time, Vieira was a low-profile underachiever with AC Milan. Wenger recognised his potential, just as he later noticed something special about the young Nicolas Anelka, who was enticed to Real Madrid after establishing his credentials at Highbury.

But the loss of Anelka would rank as a mere blip alongside the loss of Vieira. No player epitomises the Wenger regime more comprehensively than Vieira.

Tough and uncompromising, yet stylish and athletic, Vieira's contribution to Wenger's continuing success has rightly earned him a place among the Highbury greats.

His loss would be felt as deeply by the Arsenal faithful as that of Liam Brady, who ended his Highbury playing career by moving to Juventus in 1980 to fulfil a long-held ambition.

A quarter of a century ago there was a semblance of honour among the big clubs of Europe. Today they appear to have very little respect for each other.

Arsenal are dismayed by what they perceive to be Real's lack of courtesy in talking publicly about one of their players.

They have been down this route before - many times. Arsenal have made no secret of the fact they want to keep Vieira, but every player has a price. He's 28 and one day they might accept the right offer for him. If not this summer, then maybe next summer.

A fee of around £30million for a player of his age is good business and, for the big clubs, that's the bottom line these days.

Vieira has achieved all that domestic football has to offer - three Premiership titles and three FA Cup medals. He's also achieved all that international football has to offer - winning the World Cup and European Championship with France.

The one major honour missing from his collection is the Champions League and Arsenal haven't got close to it.

Will he go or will he stay? My guess is that he will stay. When I last spoke to him, in the final weeks of Arsenal's spectacular title triumph, he was already speculating how far his team would go into the new season before losing a match.

He didn't sound to me like a player with a big transfer on his mind.

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