Patrick Vieira hopes to be “a mix” of former bosses Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger as the new Nice coach prepares for his first season in charge of a European club. During his playing career, Vieira established himself as one of the world’s foremost midfielders during nearly a decade at Arsenal under Wenger while he later played for Mourinho at Inter Milan.
“Arsene gave us quite a lot of freedom and Mourinho went more into detail about opponents, what he saw in the players, unlike Arsene, whose philosophy was different,” Vieira told L’Equipe. “It’s important to give information to the players to try and play a good game, but at the same time, you have to give them that freedom to be able to express themselves. There was more giving of responsibility with Arsene. A mix of the two would be very good.”
Vieira revealed he had spent time with Pep Guardiola, Maurizio Sarri and Jorge Sampaoli while developing his own approach to club management, and said he had recently asked former international teammates Zinedine Zidane and Laurent Blanc about the difficulties they had faced in swapping the pitch for the dugout.
After hanging up his boots in 2011, the ex-France international began his coaching career with Manchester City’s Elite Development Squad and then at New York City FC before deciding to succeed Lucien Favre at Nice where he hopes to blend the best qualities of his ex-managers.