Arsenal's captain Patrick Vieira holds up the Premiership trophy after Arsenal won the Premiership title. (©GettyImages)
|
My three legendary V-ictors are Patrick Vieira , Dennis Viollet and Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Patrick Vieira
The midfield area in any football game is crucial: games are won and lost here and, in Patrick Vieira, Arsenal have one of the most highly-rated midfield enforcers in the world. His athleticism, strength and power have also made him a major force in European football.
He was born on 23rd June 1976, in Dakar, Senegal and was rescued from an unhappy spell at AC Milan by manager Arsene Wenger early at the start of 1996. The French central midfielder had only secured four appearances in a 14-month spell in Italy and was happy to 'jump ship' when Arsenal came calling.
In fact, Wenger insisted that Vieira be signed by Arsenal before he took over as Arsenal boss. Vieira arrived in August for just £4million, and Wenger the following month. Wenger knew what he was doing, as this awesome player's ball-winning and passing skills have since helped bind the Gunners' midfield together in sensational fashion. The protective 'shield' his powerhouse mid-field performances provide for the defence ensure that Arsenal's 'flair' players are free to perform upfield, while his aerial prowess aids him in both penalty areas.
Another of Patrick's key qualities is his seemingly boundless energy, and his capacity to run for the entire 90 minutes has been crucial to Arsenal's recent domination of the Premiership. After making his Highbury debut on 16th September, 1996, in a 4-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday, he helped the Gunners to the 1997-98 League and Cup double. The 2001-02 season saw Patrick win his second Double while the Gunners seized the title for a third time in 2004.
By the end of the 2003 season, he had played 319 games for Arsenal, scoring 24 goals, and had won 62 caps for France. His only fault has been, perhaps, the hot-headedness which saw a flurry of red and yellow cards brandished in his direction early on in his time at Highbury.
His international career went from strength to strength after his arrival at Highbury. Although born in Senegal, Vieira is now a vital part of the French national side, forming an effective midfield pairing with the great Zinedine Zidane. Although, perhaps overshadowed by his illustrious teammate, he is equally important to the team, and has already earned himself a World Cup Winners' medal plus a European Championship Winners' medal with Les Bleus.
Although part of the France squad which failed to retain the World Cup in Japan and South Korea in 2002, on his return to England he was named as the new captain of Arsenal for the 2002-03 season following Tony Adams' retirement.
Patrick has recently been voted the best foreign player ever to play in English football, earning the accolade from a highly respected panel of experts who were asked to name their all-time top teams of international 'imports'.. Vieira got the vote from 17 of 20 top managers and players including Sir Bobby Robson, Claudio Ranieri, Graham Taylor and Sir Tom Finney. In 2003, Patrick was voted Carlsberg 'Player of the Year'.
Dennis Viollet
Dennis was one of the original Busby Babes, and one of Manchester United's goal-scoring 'greats'. He was a lethal finisher, whose pace and control enabled him to deceive the most destructive of defences.
Born in Manchester on September 20th, 1933, he came through the United youth system and established himself as a first-team player in 1953. He scored his first United goal on his home debut against West Bromwich Albion and went on to form a devastating partnership with Tommy Taylor.
Few of Dennis's goals came from headers, which didn't matter much when playing alongside a man like Taylor. Tommy died the 1958 Munich disaster but Dennis defied career-threatening head injuries to play in the emotional FA Cup final defeat by Bolton later the same season.
Dennis had earlier scored United's first European goal when they beat Anderlecht 2-0 in 1956 before adding four more when they won 10-0 in the return leg, and his amazing haul of 32 goals in 36 League games during the 1959-60 season is still the club record. He was in both United's League championship-winning sides of 1956 and 1957, scoring 36 goals over the two campaigns.
He made his England debut against Hungary in 1959, scoring in a 2-0 win over Luxembourg at Highbury two years later. Dennis was transferred to Stoke in January 1962 after scoring 178 goals in 291 appearances. He then moved to Irish League side Linfield before playing for Baltimore Bays in America where he died, aged 65, in March 1999.
Ruud Van Nistelrooy
Ruud van Nistelrooy was born July 1, 1976 in Oss, the Netherlands and started his professional career with Den Bosch in 1993. In 1997, after netting 12 goals in 13 games, Club Heerenveen bought him, for whom he scored 13 goals in 31 games.
On his 22nd birthday, this burgeoning scoring 'machine' moved to PSV Eindhoven for £3.4million and, once again, wasted no time in scoring 31 goals in 34 matches during his debut season - the highest in the Dutch League and second-highest in Europe! He was voted Dutch Player of that year by his fellow professionals.
In April 2001, after a cruciate knee ligament injury set-back, Ruud joined Manchester United for a British record fee of £19million and, in the 2002-03 season, won the Premiership Golden Boot with his tally of 25 Premiership goals, substantially helping United reclaim the Premiership trophy from Arsenal. With four more goals in the FA Cup, three in the European qualifying stage and one in the Worthington Cup, Ruud's season's total was an astonishing 45 goals! For this feat, he was awarded the Barclaycard Player of the Season.
He made his debut for Holland against Germany in 1998 and was declared the World's Top Goal Scorer for 2002 by the IFFHS, scoring 14 goals for club and country at international level. By the start of the 2003/04 season, 'Van The Man' had plundered an outstanding 80 goals in only 101 games for United! He was PFA Players' Player of the Year in 2002.
