Roberto Mancini is looking to make the Internazionale defensive midfielder Patrick Vieira his first signing. Vieira won two Serie A titles at Inter with Mancini but has since fallen out of favour at the San Siro under Jose Mourinho.
How he would fit in to the Manchester City squad and even more pertinently, the English Premier League is uncertain. Arsene Wenger seldom sells players too early and the prevailing wisdom at the time of his sale from Arsenal was that while Vieira’s legs had not ‘gone’, he was not the natural sort of athlete who could continue playing in such a fast and physical league. His long recovery times and reduced stamina made Serie A a good fit for him.
That was almost five years ago.
The last time he played a competite match against English opposition was in 2006 when Juventus faced his former team Arsenal in the Champions League and was comprehensively outplayed by his opposite number, Cesc Fabregas in a 2-0 win for Arsenal.
It is unlikely he will have any real impact on the Manchester City first team with Gareth Barry and Nigel de Jong playing well and settled.
He would give leadership and experience to the dressing room and be a useful substitute or occasional starter, but don’t bet on him being the same player as he was at Highbury.
