Vieira to mastermind City raid on Arsenal for Nasri

Patrick Vieira, the last Arsenal captain to win a trophy, has announced his retirement. But even as Arsene Wenger was paying tribute to his inspirational skipper during the Gunners' tour of Asia, it emerged that the former French midfielder is now hoping to mastermind his downfall.

The 35-year-old Vieira was deemed surplus to playing requirements at his final club, Manchester City, but now that he has hung up his boots City boss Roberto Mancini has hired him as a 'football development executive' and charged him with luring Samir Nasri away from the club where he became a legend.

The Times claims that one of his first tasks will be to "grease the wheels" of the deal to bring Nasri from Arsenal to City, a move already made by Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure and Gael Clichy in recent seasons.

If he was to orchestrate such a transfer it would not go down well among the fans who used to idolise him.

Vieira, though, seems unconcerned about the prospect of upsetting his old employers. "This is a fantastic challenge for me," he said. "I have a lot to learn about the non-playing areas of the business but there are many very experienced people here for me to learn from."

Vieira was one of Wenger's first signings as Arsenal boss. He arrived in 1996 after only two appearances for AC Milan and became the lynchpin of the Arsenal midfield as they won four FA Cups and three Premier League titles in nine seasons. His final act as Arsenal captain was to lift the FA Cup.

He left in 2005 for Juventus and after one season there switched to Inter Milan and then City.

Wenger described him as an "exceptional" player.

"You can only have lot of respect for what Patrick has achieved," he said. "His career is sensational. He was an exceptional player for us. We have classy players in midfield now but Patrick was special."

Wenger will be hoping that he doesn't prove to be quite such a success in his new role. ·