Ian Wright has claimed that Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira could be considered for the Manchester City job when Pep Guardiola decides to move on, whilst claiming that Arsenal may have upset him by overlooking him for a role in the backroom.
The Gunners lost to his Palace side at Selhurst Park on Monday night as they continue to thrive under Vieira’s guidance in his debut managerial campaign in the Premier League.
He is naturally being talked about as a potential future manager of our club, due to his links to our club having starred as our captain during Arsene Wenger’s reign as manager, but Ian Wright claims that our club may have upset him by overlooking him for a role in our backroom previously.
“I thought he would have been kept within Arsenal, under Wenger, obviously, Wenger kept like Bouldy around him, but he didn’t keep Vieira around and I think Patrick might’ve been upset with that,” Wright told listeners to his Wrighty’s House podcast.
“He went to play for City, and after he’s finished he probably thought ‘if Arsenal want me to I’ll go,’ but they didn’t and City brought him in to do the U18s and to do New York. Then he went back to France. Now he knows how he wants to play, he’s very calm, and the way he’s working and moulding that team, if anything happens with Pep, he’s going to be in the running for that Man City job.”
The Frenchman is currently enjoying only his first season in charge of a PL club, so it seems a little soon to be linking him with the step-up to manage Man City, but having worked under their umbrella group previously, he could well have an inside route into the role.
I don’t know if he will have any underlying feelings about the fact that he has never been employed in the backroom since taking up coaching, while City gave him the opportunity to begin his journey to get to where he is today, although it seems unlikely that we will both be on the lookout for a new manager at the same time.
Even so, if given the choice, I feel his allegiance would remain with Arsenal if pushed to make that decision, but could he be swayed by the transfer budget of Man City over a return to the club where he is loved?
Patrick
“if given the choice, I feel his allegiance would remain with Arsenal if pushed to make that decision”
I wouldn’t be so sure,I remember him speaking about being contacted by Arsenal after Emery’s sacking.he said that he felt that the club were never serious about it and that it was only PR.
Apart from being an entirely “what if” subject and therefore merely of academic interest to some – though not much of interest at all to me- I do think that not keeping a number of our greats who played under Wenger, at the club after they retired, was a huge opportunity missed.
I always thought and still do, that AW never fancied strong minded players who might stand up against him, when they were coaching.
He HAD to be the male equivalent of a Queen Bee and that was one of his weaknesses, IMO!
A wise and non arrogant manager takes soundings from experienced pros who he can trust. I always thought AW entirely ploughed his own furrow and to the disadvantage of our team, esp during his final decade.
Bould was no more than a stooge, IMO.