Patrick Vieira: does the legend still have the legs?

As Patrick Vieira prepares to pack his woollies and head north from Italy to Manchester, speculation is rife as to how the veteran midfielder will readjust to the frenzied pace of the Premier League. During his glory years at Arsenal there was no sight more rousing for the Highbury faithful than that of Vieira's long legs galloping upfield, the ball seemingly glued to his right boot.

But those same legs are now in their 34th year and it's nearly five years since the Frenchman left the Gunners on an £18m move to Juventus, where he stayed for a season before moving to Inter Milan.

Two of Vieira's former Arsenal teammates aren't optimistic that he will last the pace of the Premier league. Match of the Day pundit Lee Dixon remembers that he "always needed a long time to recover after games, longer than some of the older lads" and that was when Vieira was still in his 20s. Not just that, says Dixon, but since Vieira last played in the Premier League "the game is twice as fast and ridiculously different".

Dixon's sentiments are shared by one of his old back-four buddies at Arsenal, Nigel Winterburn, who described the move as a "gamble".  Acknowledging Vieira's undoubted world-class skills, Winterburn recalls that "he was a fantastic player for Arsenal...you've got a player who is very, very competitive but is also very skillful and has ability on the ball."

However, Winterburn wonders whether Vieira will fit into Manchester City's squad. "Is he going to disrupt the style of play and will he be able to play enough games?" asks the former Arsenal defender. "He will have to play a holding midfield role and I think Manchester City have got players who can already do that so I am slightly surprised [at the move]."

And like Dixon, Winterburn isn't sure Vieira fully appreciates the task of the challenge that awaits him in England as he seeks to play himself into France's World Cup squad. "The first thing you have to look at is whether he is back to full fitness and how many games is he going to play," says Winterburn. "The game has moved on since he left the Premiership, it's got even quicker. If Patrick Vieira was still at the level he was when he left Arsenal, then it would be a good move for Manchester City, but I have my doubts whether he can get back to that level."

Fortunately for Vieira there are one or two people in football who believe he still has what it takes to survive the rigours of the Premier League, most notably his former Arsenal boss. It was Arsene Wenger who brought Vieira to England, insisting on his purchase from Milan in September 1996, and he has no doubt his compatriot possesses the necessary skills to flourish at Eastlands.  "I believe he will still be very effective in the Premier League because he has been injury-free for three or four months, and that is what he needed," says Wenger.

Wenger's endorsement was echoed by Jose Mourinho, Vieira's boss at Inter, who has reluctantly agreed to his departure. "As a man and a coach, I'm not happy because he is a fantastic man and a great player," he said yesterday. "But I would say I'm happy because he's happy." ·