Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira has revealed that he was shocked when he arrived at the club from AC Milan because of how much more ‘unprofessional’ it was there.
Vieira began his playing career at Cannes and he impressed so much in his two seasons with the senior side that he earned a move to Milan in 1995, but a year later he departed the club for Arsenal where he united with his compatriot Arsène Wenger.
His time in north London was certainly a success as he lifted four FA Cups and three league titles, including one of them as an unbeaten team that have since become known the world over as the ‘Invincibles’.
The Frenchman came back to Italy, playing for Juventus and Inter, then he ended up at Manchester City before retiring in 2011. He has since become a coach, working for OGC Nice and Crystal Palace formerly, now Strasbourg.
Vieira spoke on the Stick to Football podcast hosted by Gary Neville, and he was asked by the former Manchester United full-back what he found when he first arrived at Arsenal in 1996.
“Coming to England, going to Arsenal, I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t have a clue about the Premier League because in France the biggest league was the Italian league. Serie A was the most followed league in France.
“So at that period I didn’t know anything about Arsenal. Arriving there I was really impressed by the unprofessionalism (laughs). I came from AC Milan, and AC Milan had players arriving one hour or two hours before training, well dressed. Costacurta was coming every day to training with a suit and tie.
“They were having their lunch after training and some of them were sleeping at the training ground before going back home. It was really professional. That is where I really learned the job.
“Coming to Arsenal, it was really the opposite. It was different. The mentality was completely different, and I felt really comfortable with it and I loved it.
“It was quite relaxed, laid back, it was all about what was going on on the field. It was about the passion and not thinking about tomorrow, it was about training 100%.
“We could train well, we could train bad, there were some technical mistakes but we were always giving 100%. That was totally different from the Italian culture that I learned before.”
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