FA CUP: PATRICK VIEIRA'S "winning mentality" can help Manchester City end their 41-year wait for FA Cup success, his team-mate Kolo Toure said yesterday.
Vieira’s last involvement in English football until his return on a six-month loan from Inter Milan was the penalty that won the cup for Arsenal in 2005 after a shoot-out with Manchester United, the last time Arsene Wenger’s side lifted a trophy.
“You need a winning mentality to bring a team success,” said Toure, Vieira’s friend and team-mate at first Arsenal and now City. “Carlos Tevez has that as well. We were bought for our quality but we were bought for our experience as well. What we bring is the winning spirit. We know Manchester City have not won a trophy in a long time and, if we do, it will be crucial for the club.”
With Arsenal, Liverpool and United all out of a competition Manchester City have not won since 1969, when they beat Leicester City 1-0 in the final, Toure recognises they may never have a better chance. Although Mark Hughes brought some outstanding footballers to Eastlands, such as Republic of Ireland international Shay Given, Craig Bellamy and Gareth Barry, they were not weighed down by their medal collections. And it is a great experience of success that Vieira, signed by Roberto Mancini, brings to the team.
Toure pointed to the 2005 final as a case in point. United outplayed Arsenal on that afternoon at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium but it was Vieira who ended up holding the trophy. Toure added that there were other, more personal, reasons for welcoming the 33-year-old Frenchman to Manchester.
Toure is anxious to recapture the sense of community he enjoyed at Arsenal. Now with Vieira and Emmanuel Adebayor, he has “a new family” at City. “I was like Patrick’s little brother at Arsenal and I was really happy to see him again in Manchester,” the defender said.
“On the pitch, he is a hard man but, off it, Patrick is really nice. We have been to Ade’s (Adebayor’s) house and had long talks about what we can achieve for the club. London has a lot of foreign people but Manchester has less of that and to have Ade and Patrick here is wonderful. We are like a little family.”
Guardian Service
