Following our draw against Liverpool and Gary Neville’s subsequent criticism of Arsene Wenger, pundit Lee Dixon has defended his former manager.
Neville hit out at Wenger because he believes he should have replaced Patrick Vieira and his inability to do so has resulted in a lack of leadership within the Arsenal team since he left.
The comments were unnecessary, not to mention irrelevant, and Dixon pointed out that the boss simply couldn’t sign a new Vieira because another Vieira doesn’t exist.
“The trouble is, there are not many Vieiras about,” Dixon said. “Priorities seemed to have laid elsewhere with Arsene and he is now relying on the relatively inexperienced Francis Coquelin. Arrogance is not the right word.”
Dixon is completely correct. Unfortunately, the world isn’t exactly overflowing with midfielders like Vieira and just because a quality player leaves, doesn’t mean you can automatically replace them with a footballer of the same, or even similar, calibre.
Other areas need to be strengthened too and believing Wenger hasn’t added a player ‘like Vieira‘ because he’s arrogant is just plain disrespectful.
The former Gunner went on to tweet later:
It might be also true that Man Utd have never replaced Keane? Why not?
— Lee Dixon (@LeeDixon2) August 25, 2015
Exactly.