VIEIRA TELLS HOW HE ALMOST JOINED AJAX

PATRICK VIEIRA stood tall at 6'3" but still walked into the land of giants when he first set foot inside the Arsenal dressing room 14 years ago.

It had to be the most improbable way to begin a journey which saw the virtually unknown Frenchman rise to become one of the most celebrated players in Premier League history.

Ian Wright, David Seaman, Martin Keown and Dennis Bergkamp were all present one afternoon at the training ground in September 1996.

Tony Adams, the captain, the leader, the inspiration - everything Vieira himself grew to be - was perhaps the man who most embodied the old Arsenal, where style gave way to hard graft and pragmatism under George Graham.

Arsene Wenger was now in charge at Highbury, after arriving from the football backwaters of Japan. He was about to change English football forever with his sophisticated attitude towards diet and fitness.

A series of chance meetings in the San Siro while Vieira was failing to make the starting line-up for Fabio Capello's AC Milan saw the Senegal-born midfielder agree to sign for the Gunners even before Wenger had arrived in North London.

Vieira signed for £3.5million and became the first building block in the Frenchman's quest to lead his new side into an exciting new era.

But first there was that glimpse back into the past, from where Adams set the example for Vieira to follow.

"I'd often run into Arsene in the stands in Milan," said Vieira.

"In a way, we were both spectators who were not doing very much. His season at Nagoya finished in October, he knew he was going to join Arsenal and I was hardly ever in the AC Milan team. So he asked if I was interested in moving.

"I was supposed to sign for Ajax, who were beginning to lose the players that had won them the Champions League two years earlier.

"I only found out recently that the Ajax deal didn't go through simply because of agents' fees. It's funny how a career can swing on such a detail.

"So anyway, - I ended up signing for Arsenal. I was completely out of my depth and didn't know what was happening.

"The first thing that happened was on one of my first days when Tony Adams started talking to everyone in the changing room.

"I could see that there was a lot of emotion among the players but I didn't understand a word and I wondered what on earth was happening.

"I learned later in the day that Tony Adams was, in fact, telling everyone that he was an alcoholic."

Wenger's drastic change in playing style saw the 'boring' tag, so often associated with Arsenal, consigned to history. Instead, an injection of continental flair saw them battle shoulder to shoulder with Manchester United in the hunt for trophies.

Vieira won the Premier League title and FA Cup in his second season before winning the World Cup and European Championship with France.

Another memorable 'Double' came in 2002 when they paraded the silverware on the Old Trafford turf, and in 2004 he was the driving force behind his team's unbeaten title-winning season. Mr Invisible had become Mr Invincible.

He had helped drag his old club out of the Dark Ages and into the brightest phase of their history.

Even with his last kick as an Arsenal player in 2005, Vieira's winning penalty won the FA Cup in a shootout win over United at the Millennium Stadium before he left to play for Capello at Juventus.

Now 33, Vieira is in the mood to repeat the trick at his new club Manchester City.

He is seen as Roberto Mancini's man in the dressing room, a crucial ally who can impart his manager's ideas on an emerging City squad.

Injury-plagued in recent times, Vieira did not make his debut until yesterday's trip to Hull, and admits fearing weeks ago that knee and ankle problems might force him to quit.

Leader

"Of course, I considered retirement but I never said to myself, 'You're going to stop playing,' because I love football," he said. "I love running after that ball, and it's not time for me to hang up my boots just yet.

"I had wanted to come back to England for a while. I had some offers which were not really interesting and the fact I'm at City today shows that I was right to wait.

"Arsene Wenger always had a thing he used to say which stayed with me: 'You don't become a leader, you're born a leader.'

"These things happen because managers saw me as a natural leader.

"At the same time I'm not someone who will shout and scream at half-time, who will yell on the pitch to re-position players. I'm a leader by my determination and commitment,"

VIEIRA: A born leader

Alongside the likes of Roy Keane and Thierry Henry, Vieira vies for the unofficial title of being the most influential player of the Premier League era.

But it would be unfair to suggest that his path to glory only began when he moved to Arsenal.

As a teenager, he captained Cannes, his first professional team in France. After more than 60 appearances for the club that spawned Zinedine Zidane he was off to Milan, where the old 'three foreigners' rule prevented him making more than two starts under Capello. Perhaps the most astonishing feature of his early career was the manner in which he completed his move from Cannes to Serie A.

Vieira says he was collected after a training session in 1994 and flown by private jet to a mystery destination which turned out to be Milan.

"It was very complicated!" he recalls.

"The worst thing is when I tell this story, people will say, 'It can't be true, he's making it up,' but it did really happen like this.

"I finished training, I got in a private jet and I found myself in Milan, in an office, all on my own, with a contract in Italian. I didn't understand a word of it and yet I signed.

"I could have not signed but I was at AC Milan, I was 19 and so I thought it made sense to sign for them! The worst thing is I didn't even know where we were going.

"The whole thing was a bit bizarre but at the end of it all I was happy.

"I was at AC Milan, I turned up at training and there was Weah, Maldini, Savicevic, Costacurta.

"In fact, Savicevic was probably the player I saw the least on the training field, but he had so much quality and he always scored or created a goal.

"He didn't need to train to help the team. Capello managed that situation very well and it wasn't easy because at Milan at that time there were great players everywhere.

"I got on best with George Weah, he was like my big brother and his room was next to mine. He taught me how to do a knot in my tie!"

Vieira can recall the tactical acumen of a younger Capello as the current England manager set about a career path that led him to Real Madrid within three years.

He remembers how the Italian offered a new meaning to the phrase 'playing against a bunch of nobodies' as he thinks back to his early methods.

Discipline

He also gives credit to Capello for instilling in him the on-pitch discipline which helped him develop into arguably the most formidable defensive midfielder of his generation.

"At that time, there was still the three-foreigner rule," said Vieira.

"It was hard for him to pick me, but in training he worked with the first team XI going through different phases of play in 4-4-2 but with nobody up against them. In other words, you'd be playing a match with no opposition!

"It was all about working on your co-ordination and the co-ordination of the team as a block.

"There were 11 first team players and me. Capello made me go behind Demetrio Albertini so I could learn all about holding the right position on the field - I was made to follow him like a shadow.

"For me it was a way to learn the important basics but at the same time a great show of confidence in me from Capello.

"I would have loved to have done something like Paulo Maldini or Alessandro Del Piero or Raul, with a big career at a great club where you win everything, but I moved to Italy too early and I was too young."

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