Almost as soon as he’d sat down in front of the waiting press upon his appointment as New York City FC head coach in January 2016, Patrick Vieira was asked to name a manager he’d modelled his own coaching style after. It was a question set up to garner one answer: Arsène Wenger.
Vieira spoke about José Mourinho’s insistence on meticulous preparation, Roberto Mancini’s determination and Manuel Pellegrini’s levelheadedness. Then he got to Wenger, highlighting the unwavering faith the Frenchman puts in his players. Even at that early stage, as Vieira took his first step into senior management, there was a sense that similar faith might one day be put in him to succeed his former manager.
And two years later those pieces may be falling into place. Whether by his own will or not, Wenger will depart Arsenal at the end of the season and Vieira is in the frame to replace him. More proven, accomplished coaches have been put forward as candidates – Max Allegri, Carlo Ancelotti and Luis Enrique to name a few – but they do not have the emotional connection to the north London club that Vieira has.
Is sentiment enough, though? Just how strong is the body of work Vieira has put together during his time at New York City FC? Could Arsenal really pick their next manager from Major League Soccer, given how the division is frequently derided for its perceived lack of quality? Those at Arsenal will be doing their research on Vieira, and there are reasons to justify the 41-year-old’s candidacy.
At NYC FC, Vieira has shown himself to be an astute operator. His teams play attractive, modern, and most importantly winning, football, the kind that will go down well at the Emirates Stadium. They finished runners-up in the Eastern Conference in each of Vieira’s two two years at the club, with NYC FC setting an early pace in the early stages of the new season. If there’s one criticism to be levelled at Vieira it’s that such regular season form hasn’t yet translated into a sustained play-off run. That must be the target this year.
Of course, with the backing of City Football Group, New York City FC have more resources than most others in MLS, but to claim they have bought success under Vieira would be to demonstrate a lack of a true grasp of the way the division works. Trades, drafts, allocation orders … while David Villa, Andrea Pirlo and Frank Lampard have all turned out at Yankee Stadium, it’s not just a case of opening the checkbook in MLS.
His status as a World Cup and Premier League champion means he has authority in the dressing room, with Villa just one of the players thriving under his tutelage. Another was Jack Harrison, the England Under-21 winger who joined Manchester City in January. What’s more, Vieira has coped with the expectation heaped on his shoulders from the very day of his hiring at NYC FC. This is a franchise that fired Vieira’s predecessor Jason Kreis for missing out on the play-offs in their first ever season in the league.
Of course, it’s all relative. The pressure Vieira has dealt with in the States is nothing compared with what he would experience at Arsenal in the post-Wenger age. The Emirates has become a cauldron of ill-feeling in recent years and it will take more than Wenger’s exit to remedy that. Whether Vieira is, as a character, the antidote is down to hunch.
Vieira has been presented with the opportunity to use NYC FC as a stepping stone before. He held tentative talks with Ligue 1 side St Etienne last summer, but insisted that he “never asked to leave”. And before Vieira even arrived in New York, he was interviewed for the Newcastle United job in 2015. His name, coupled with the coaching education he was given at Manchester City, probably would have been enough to get Vieira a Premier League job. Instead, Vieira decided to cut his teeth at NYC FC, staying under the City Football Group umbrella for the time being. The idea, at the time, was that the Frenchman would earn his managerial stripes in MLS before eventually returning to the Etihad.
Indeed, the Arsenal job may not even be the one Vieira wants most of all. He says returning to Man City to succeed Pep Guardiola is his “fairytale story,” also revealing his ambition to take charge of a Series A team one day. “I’d love to coach an Italian team because it’s a pleasure when you work in a country with passion, and in Italy there is a lot of passion for football,” he told Sky Sports Italia last year.
Most recently, Vieira has insisted that he is “ready to coach any side in Europe.” While the Frenchman remains diplomatic, it’s clear he would answer Arsenal’s call. In fact, he would surely answer a call from most major European clubs. The Gunners were criticised for allowing a club legend to become part of a rivals’ coaching team in the first place, with Vieira a coach at Manchester City for five years before joining NYC FC. Dither on hiring him as a manager and they might miss out again. Others will come for Vieira.
There’s no way of knowing for sure if Vieira is the right man to succeed Wenger, but the Frenchman has yet to take a misstep as a coach. At Man City, young players are now surfacing from the academy system he helped put in place. At NYC FC, he has forged one of the most dynamic sides in MLS. At the very least, the prospect of what Vieira might do at Arsenal is intriguing.
The Guardian Sport
