David Seaman has revealed that he wanted his former club Arsenal to hire Patrick Vieira instead of Mikel Arteta a year ago.
Arteta is approaching his one-year anniverseray as Arsenal’s head coach after replacing the axed Unai Emery in North London last December.
And much like football is a game of two halves, his Gunners career has been a spell of two halves.
In his first season half-a-season in charge, Arteta led the Emirates Stadium outfit to an FA Cup title, beating Manchester City and Chelsea in the semi-final and final.
Both victories – along with a Premier League win over Liverpool in July – were considered irrefutuable pieces of evidence that Arsenal had hired the right man.
And yet, the North Londoners are now 14th in the Premier League table after 10 games played in the 2020-21 campaign and with high-flying Tottenham Hotpsur on the agenda tomorrow, there’s no sign of their fortunes changing domestically.
Speaking to The Target Men podcast, former goalkeeper Seaman admitted that although he likes Arteta, he wanted another ex-midfielder in the form of Vieira – sacked from his job at OGC Nice on Friday – back in the dugout at the Emirates Stadium.
He said: “When he first signed for Arsenal, I thought it was a big risk because it’s his first job and it’s a big job. After Emery and the latter years of Arsene, we weren’t getting any better, so for Mikel to take over was a tough ask.
“At the time I thought Patrick Vieira might have been a better choice because he’d already had experience, but since then, I like how he’s affecting the team, but he needs to be given time from the board to make it his own team.
“The game against Wolves showed that Arsenal are still lacking in confidence and a clear idea of what is expected of them.”
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