英国球迷对B10言论的看法：
Vieira may have been a friend to Bergkamp, but he was no friend to Arsenal.
It's nice and well in hindsight to say that selling Vieira was a mistake, but after what Vieira had done to us in the last 4 summers, it was the right decision. Unfortunately, it was followed by the wrong decision not to replace him, and you didn't need hindsight to see this one. Would we be where we are if Diaby came to us in the summer?
If Vieira was truly the "inspirational" figure off the pitch, then I am not at all surprised why Ashley Cole acted the way he has, and the rumour about the text message from Vieira to Cole ("You should demand £80,000"
might just be true. As for leadership on the pitch, I'm sure I remember people here complaining about that. Numerous times. And I've lost count the number of times I've said "bloody Vieira" (now replaced by "bloody Gilberto" during a match when he played like his heart, soul and body was already elsewhere.
I admit that losing a captain will affect the team in a negative way, but it still doesn't explain that when things went wrong for us, why this loss only affected a selection of senior players and not the others and not the kids in particular, when it should really be the other way around. Henry may be the captain (or a bad captain, as Bergkamp tries to imply, perhaps with some justification), but it shouldn't stop other senior players from stepping up and to at least try and fill the void left by Vieira. It would certainly have helped a lot more than moaning to the press about the lack of experience and blaming it all on the loss of Vieira (interviews with Ljungberg, Pires and Gilberto comes to mind). Should we be surprised that our most recent away win came when we fielded a team that contained only 2 senior players? Should we also be surprised that the players who have lost the most form are the ones doing the most complaining?
As for Bergkamp, he is the reason why I started to support Arsenal and football in general and that will never change. He is a legend. Period. But to try and explain our current predicament without acknowledging the dramatic decline of form of our senior players (including the great man himself, although this is perfectly understandable), their inability to step up and take responsibility and the fantastic spirit and determination shown by the youngster, strikes me as yet another senior player playing the blame game.
Vieira is gone. Get over it.
