William Gallas thinks Arsenal should sack Mikel Arteta and hire Patrick Vieira who has just been sacked himself.
Patrick Vieira was made manager of Nice at the start of July 2018 but was sacked at the start of this month following poor results during his 89 games in charge. Vieira averaged just 1.42 points per game.
Mikel Arteta has been in charge of Arsenal for just 50 matches and, while things have not been going well for the Spaniard of late, he is still averaging 1.90 points in a far more competitive league.
Not that any of that matters to Gallas.
“When they chose Mikel Arteta as a replacement for Unai Emery, it was Patrick Vieira’s name I had in my mind I think they should have gone for,” Gallas told Ladbrokes. “I do not know how close he was or if he was relevant at all. But I was surprised that they did not even mention his name [Edit – they did, pay attention].
“Patrick has more experience than Mikel, because he has trained in the USA and he spent time in Nice. So when the Arsenal board decided to choose a new manager, I thought Patrick would get the call. He was Arsenal’s captain and he knows the club very well. Patrick was the right guy then. If they have to fire Mikel Arteta, they have to choose Patrick Vieira as his replacement, and I’m sure all fans would love it.”
Vieira may well have more experience than Arteta but that means little if he can’t get the results on the pitch. I would love to see Paddy back at Arsenal but sadly he has yet to show anything special as a manager and Arteta is already outperforming him.
Even with New York City in the MLS, an even weaker league than Ligue 1 when compared to the Premier League, Vieira only average 1.58 points.
The only time during his short managerial career when Vieira has averaged more points than Arteta is at present with Arsenal was when he was in charge of City’s u19s. In 22 matches with them he averaged 2.09 points.
And if you’re thinking to yourself ‘well, what about Thierry Henry?’ – he’s averaging 1.07 points with Montreal Impact after a 0.95 average with Monaco.