Arsenal legend pinpoints why we are missing out on titles

There have been many discussions on JustArsenal over the last few years aboutour non-playing captains and lacking leadership on the pitch and in the dugout, and now one ofour Invincibles Patrick Vieira has pinpointed the differences between his generation and the present team.

“My generation had lots of physically strong players. In this last five or six years, Arsenal went more with this type of mobile, technical players,” Vieira said in the Telegraph.

“The Invincibles had it all. For me it was like the French national team in 1998, when we had physical players, players with flair, players with pace, it was quite a similar kind of team.

“Now when I watch Arsenal… yes they play good football but I just have a feeling they are missing something – the physical presence, the personality, this is what they’re missing.”

Vieira, whose Invincible side were the last Arsenal team to win the League, also believes that Wenger should have some more Gunners legends working in the backroom to pass on their winning mentality, but as we have seen recently, Thierry Henry and Tony Adams have both turned down offers to continue working under Wenger. “I’m disappointed not to have ex-Arsenal players working at Arsenal,” he continued.

“It is good for the young players who could see an Henry, Ljungberg, Campbell or Keown who have been at the club a good few years working in the Academy, or working somewhere. I think they can do it a bit more.

“Players want to do it but do not have the opportunity. I don’t understand it. The perfect example is Ajax – you see all the old players working for the club, on the field, in the office – the door is always open for them – but Arsenal don’t do it and I don’t know why,”

Well we may not have Henry, Adams or Bergkamp, but we do have Steve Bould sitting beside Wenger during games, and we also have Steve Gatting coaching the U21’s. He may not be as well known but he did play 76 games for the Gunners back in the day. I have followed his career myself because I was at the same school as Steve in North London when he started off playing for Brent. And of course we all know his brother Mike…

So Patrick Vieira has pinpointed our lack of strength and “personality” as the reason for our lack of further success. Is it as simpleas that?

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11 Comments

  1. It’s not only 1 reason, it’s the sum up of a few things, including what Vieira said. Lack of a world class striker, lack of a commanding CB, poor right wing options, poor organization defensively…

  2. Strong player’s have that winning mentality and having a winning mentality, makes you a strong player!
    And that’s the main Problem @ Arsenal.
    Case closed. ?

  3. if the rumors are true Arsenal have reignited interest in Islam Slimani who i think the fox in the hole could be a bargain @30 Million

    regarding Vieira’s comments i can take Henry’s comments but Vieira should best turn his attention to his NY City and Manchester City where he belongs now

    1. You have to stop looking at Henry as some God like being, he turned a coaching role down with Arsenal to carry on his (rather boring) punditry job with Sky, chasing the £££s’.

      Vieira was never given the chance of a coaching role at Arsenal, just like Arteta wasn’t, that’s why they both ended up at City.

      1. I never understood that myself, you don’t have to like the truth, but the truth is the truth.

      2. Actually mate, you got some facts wrong about Arteta.
        Arsenal offered him a coaching role at the club but he preferred to join up with his old mucker,Pep Guardiola instead.
        As for Patrick Vieira lol.. He left in 2005? And kept following the money! ?

  4. Arsene, Kreonke and Gazidis sums up what’s wrong with Arsenal. Get these guys out and replace them with right people then Arsenal will become a club of champuons once again.

  5. That shift that he’s talking about, it felt to me more like we had a huge shift in the space of one season. The moment PV4 left and Fabregas replaced him that is when it happened. It just went further and further in that direction. Then the defence basically evaporated and we became a bit of a soft touch lacking in both physical and mental strength.

    I did not like hearing Patrick basically say it was not at city where I wanted to be, I only ever wanted to come back and work with my beloved club. How many ex players has Wenger ignored, not even offered them the chance. With Adams the offer came way too late, imagine we could of had Adams and Vieira looking after these players. I guarantee you you would see much better results with allot of players games if they had these guys pushing for more.

    Fergie knew the importance of having the right type of figures around the club, Wenger shot himself in the foot here. Players joined us because of those guys and hoping Wenger will do the same for them. I can only imagine that Wenger wanted a clean sweep and to do it all on his own and in a different way.

  6. Perhaps Vieira would like to come and coach Arsenals squad and bring all the other ex gunners with him when Wenger leaves.

  7. The problems are all of the above, and I think a lot of it stems from Wenger being solely in charge at the Emirates – it’s his way or the highway. When David Dein had some control, Wenger could be moderated, but now he is behaving like a dictator. He could’ve come to an amicable agreement with Henry, Adams et al, as well as his counterparts on the transfer market, but he just seems to say, if you don’t like it, lump it!

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