Arsenal completed the signing of Fabio Vieira from Porto this week, and his leadership skills have been talked up since.
I’m not going to pretend to have known too much about the 22 year-old prior to his move to north London, but I certainly like what I have seen since, and am excited to see what he can add to our exciting young attack.
While many of us will be exciting by tally of assists this term, it turns out that he is actually one of the main leaders in the Portugal Under-21 side, and his leadership qualities have been likened to Martin Odegaard because of this.
The Norway star is currently the captain of his international side, and is tipped to take on the armband at the Emirates following the departures of both Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in 2022. While Vieira isn’t expected to be in the running this time around, Football.London’s Chris Davison claims he has the ‘necessary skill set’ to compete for the role in the near future.
Everything I’m hearing about our new Vieira is all positive, and it sounds as though Odegaard could well come under pressure from his younger counterpart in more than one way, with the pair both likely to be vying for the role in behind the striker for the coming seasons.
It remains to be seen if Arteta will look to use either in alternative roles as he has done with Emile Smith Rowe previously, although I would love for the Spanish manager to find a way to field both in a 4-3-3 formation, should we manage to do so without affecting the balance of our side.
Do you believe the two will be in direct competition for the foreseeable future or do you believe we could find a way to accommodate both?
Patrick
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