Pete Barrow: Are the old boys up to the new game?

Jan 15 2010 by Peter Barrow, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

FOR all the hype we are fed as the transfer window arrives, isn’t it galling when the first weeks turn out to be about as interesting as a Derby and Joan reunion bash?

There you are expecting all kinds of crazy money to be lashed out on dashing young footballers and instead so far we have been treated to the return of two ageing Gunners to the Premier League – and I thought it was Chelsea who were nicknamed the Pensioners!

Perhaps the least surprising move was that of Arsene Wenger in getting Sol Campbell to register again after his unsuccessful foray into League II.

Whoever thought you would see a story hit the major sports headlines proclaiming that Arsenal – still in the running for the Premier League title – had dived into the market to snap up a Notts County cast-off.

Admittedly the Gunners have a bit of a defensive crisis on their hands at the moment.

And the former England defender is probably well capable of handling the pace at the top in small doses when he is needed to plug the gap.

But just whether Patrick Vieira is up to operating in the engine room of a Premier League club after four seasons in Italy’s Serie A is questionable.

Campbell’s move is essentially a bit of an old pals’ act, but new Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has surprisingly opted for the same formula despite having enough money to buy just about any other member of his former Inter Milan squad – if not three or four of them.

I hope for Mancini’s sake that Vieira can find the same old fighting spirit he had in the middle for the park for the Gunners and that he doesn’t spend his time watching the game pass him by.

Being Italian, Mancini probably views the signing as akin to investing in a fine wine – that is he is expecting Vieira to have improved with age and not that he is best after drinking a bottle or two!

IN POLITICAL circles they call it the special relationship.

But when it comes to the English, Americans and sport we are easily an Atlantic Ocean apart.

We all know that the Yanks have a history of refusing to do sport properly.