Few footballers can dream of being adored by a fanbase quite like Patrick Vieira is by 's.

Sixteen years on from his departure, they still sing his song.

Standing at 6ft 4in yet graceful on the ball, he was the embodiment of the great teams of the late 1990s and сериалы 2022 онлайн early 2000s.

Vieira won three titles and four FA Cups with Arsenal - the last three of those seven major trophies coming as captain, including of the revered 'Invincibles' team of 2003-04.

And yet, as he returns to the club for the first time as a manager with on Monday night, Vieira can have every right to feel aggrieved at how Arsenal have treated him in the years since that last title. 

In August 2005, just a year on from the Invincibles' success and 12 months before he would have reached a decade at the club, Vieira was sold to Juventus for £13.75m in a deal sanctioned by Wenger. The Frenchman accepted the move, but only after it was made clear to him that the club were ready to let him go.

There were mitigating circumstances.

Arsenal were strapped for cash in the years before their £390m move to the Emirates Stadium in 2006 and £13.75m was a lot of money for a 29-year-old in 2005, but history will remember the sale as a huge mistake by Wenger.

Up until that point, the French boss could do no wrong in north London. He had sanctioned the sales of Marc Overmars, Emmanuel Petit and Nicolas Anelka and successfully rebuilt to win more titles, but Vieira was a player his team could not do without - and one the club has still not properly replaced to this day.

Having never finished outside the top two in each of Vieira's eight full seasons at the club, Arsenal have had just one top-two finish in the 16 years since.

He scored the winning penalty in the 2005 FA Cup final shootout win over Manchester United with his last kick of a ball for Arsenal - they would not win another trophy for nine years. 

<div class="art-ins mol-factbox floatRHS sport" data-version="2" id="mol-5c563810-2ce5-11ec-95b9-19b231d32c35" website Vieira got NO testimonial after being sold by Arsenal