David Villa has been singing Patrick Vieira’s praises and revealed recently that he believes the ex-midfielder will make a great manager in the future.

Villa hailed his current New York City FC manager in a recent interview with Four Four Two magazine.

“He’s got a great knowledge and understanding of the game, and a great personality too,” said Villa.

“Everybody likes him. He always gives the players lots of information before matches and he’ll study the games all of the time.

“He is at the club seven days a week, even on a Sunday. He’s got a great future as a manager in front of him and I believe he’ll be very successful for many years to come.”

Vieira took over at New York City FC from ex-Real Salt Lake boss Jason Kreis in January 2016. The MLS side are owned by Manchester City and since the former midfielder was working as a coach for their reserves, the move was a logical one.

The club was only founded in 2013 and Villa joined in 2014. In fact, the former Barcelona star was the first player to join.

The 35-year-old has scored a jaw-dropping 61 goals in 95 appearances and assisted 16. 46 of said goals have come after Vieira arrived, so they clearly have a decent enough understanding of each other.

Since the Arsenal legend’s arrival, New York City FC have gone from finishing 17th overall in the MLS in 2015, to fourth last year. They’re currently in second, nine points behind Toronto FC with eight games left of the campaign.

Regardless of whether Vieira’s team wins the title or not, the progress he’s made since arriving is undeniable. Could be potentially take over at Arsenal one day? I’d certainly like to hope so.