Patrick Vieira is set to spoil Arsenal’s plans to add Wilfried Zaha to their squad after speaking with the attacker and insisting that he wants to work with him.
The Arsenal legend is the new manager of Crystal Palace ahead of the upcoming season.
Palace has been a stable Premier League club for some time now, but they have gambled on allowing Roy Hodgson to leave and to replace him with Vieira.
The “invincible” legend knows he has a lot of work on his hands to be a success in the Premier League and wants to keep his best players.
He spoke about the future of Zaha recently and admitted that the attacker wants to leave, but says after speaking to him, he expects to keep the Ivorian.
‘I’m aware about Wilfried [Zaha and his situation] in the last couple of years but we had a really good conversation and I’m looking forward to working with him,’ he said to Sky Sports as quoted by The Daily Mail.
‘He’s one of the most talented players in this league and we don’t want to lose one of our best players.
‘All the players are smart enough to see what the club is trying to build and where the club want to go – we’ve made some really exciting young player signings and I think that shows the direction the football club wants to take.’
Arsenal was close to signing Zaha in 2019 but moved for Nicolas Pepe when they couldn’t close out the transfer.
He remains one of the more exciting players to watch in England and they can sign him for a significantly lower fee now.
However, with Willian still on their books, they might struggle to fit him into their squad.