Manchester City plot to rescue Patrick Vieira from Inter misery

Posted Tuesday, January 05, 2010 by theguardian.com

Manchester City plot to rescue Patrick Vieira from Inter misery
Patrick Vieira has lost his place at Inter and is believed to be intrigued by a move to Manchester City.

Roberto Mancini, Manchester City's new manager, is trying to bring one of the Premier League's greatest ever players back to England after putting in place a possible deal for Patrick Vieira.

The former Arsenal captain, whose clashes with Roy Keane came to symbolise the London club's rivalry with Manchester United, is meeting Internazionale in the next few days to determine whether he is still wanted at San Siro after losing his place as a mandatory first-team fixture since Jose Mourinho took over from Mancini.

The emphasis at City is to bring in new defenders, with Vieira's 33-year-old team-mate Iván Córdoba among the targets, but Mancini has also identified a player who represented Arsenal more than 400 times before moving to Juventus for £13.7m four and a half years ago. Mancini subsequently persuaded Vieira to move to Inter in 2006 for £8m and the player, who will be 34 in June, went on to win two Serie A titles under the man whose City career has begun with three successive victories and not a single goal conceded.

Mancini would not be drawn on how far the deal had gone yesterday other than to say Vieira was a "good player" but City have been encouraged by their early inquiries to believe that the midfielder is intrigued by the possibility of returning to England. Mancini's information is that Vieira, who has won 107 caps for France and played in the 1998 World Cup- and Euro 2000-winning sides, wants to win his place back in the national team and be involved in the World Cup in South Africa this summer, but knows that he may have to move clubs to get his wish.

Arsenal investigated re-signing him last year, with the manager Arsène Wenger confirming that he would be interested in being reunited with a player whose last kick of the ball for the club was the winning penalty in the 2005 FA Cup final shoot-out against Manchester United.

The proposal at City is to sign him initially on loan until the end of the season, and paying him £150,000 a week would be no problem for a club of such immense wealth. "All the players now want to come to Manchester City," Mancini said. "It is normal because City are a big club and it will be a big future here."

City, once again, are gearing up to be the Premier League's biggest spenders this month, although not to the extent of the previous two transfer windows when Mancini's predecessor, Mark Hughes, spent more than £200m in total.

After such a level of expenditure, Mancini seemed almost bemused as he reflected that he did not "have many players" from which to select a side to play Manchester United in the first leg of their Carling Cup semi-final . Kolo Touré and Emmanuel Adebayor are playing in the Africa Cup of Nations and City have an extensive injury list including Joleon Lescott, Wayne Bridge, Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha.

Mancini reported that Micah Richards should have recovered from a groin injury to resume an experimental central defensive partnership with Vincent Kompany but, if not, City have no other natural players for that position and may have to rely upon a graduate of the club's youth academy, Dedryck Boyata, a Belgium Under-19 international who started his first senior game in the FA Cup third-round victory at Middlesbrough on Saturday.

Nigel de Jong was taken off against Middlesbrough with a sore calf but should be available, whereas Robinho needs tests to ascertain whether he has recovered from a knee injury. Shaun Wright-Phillips and Roque Santa Cruz have not figured in Mancini's first three games but the manager reported that it was "possible" they might be included in his squad.

Hughes has been told he will not face disciplinary action from the Football Association after his outspoken criticisms of the referee Mark Clattenburg for sending off Craig Bellamy in the 3-3 draw at Bolton Wanderers last month. Hughes has written to the FA to explain his anger and the matter will go no further.