Patrick Vieira Discusses Manchester City's Next Stars, Raheem Sterling and More

MANCHESTER, England — Given his hectic schedule and the upheaval at Manchester City this year, Patrick Vieira could be forgiven for feeling somewhat jaded as he begins a few weeks of rest this summer.

City’s Elite Development Squad (EDS) manager has not only coached his young charges in five competitions—winning the International Premier League Cup and getting to the quarter-final stage of the UEFA Youth League—he was also part of creating the new City Football Academy (CFA), a £200 million youth development and first-team training facility built adjacent to the Etihad Stadium.

It boasts remarkable attention to detail and is home to every single City side, from the eight-year-olds playing in their first organised league system to Sergio Aguero, David Silva and the club’s other world-class senior stars. Aspiration is key. Young players can see the progression to the first team and are given everything they need to realise their dream.

It’s design and construction has been a huge undertaking. It officially opened in December, bringing to an end six years of painstaking research. Brian Marwood, the club’s academy director, was central to its design, working in tandem with Vieira and the club’s leadership team to create the CFA’s blueprint.

They now have the finest academy and training facilities in England, and it’s quickly become known in the North West as the best place for young players to develop. The fact that Robin van Persie’s young son is enrolled on City’s books speaks volumes about the pull the CFA already has.

But does its eye-watering cost bring added pressure to Vieira’s role as EDS coach?

“The [CFA] facilities here are miles ahead of those I’ve experienced before, but there’s always pressure in management,” he told Bleacher Report. “I don’t think you can get away from it. But I don’t think there’s more pressure than the pressure I put on myself. I want the teams I manage to win trophies.”

The CFA has been purposely designed to offer young players a clear pathway to the senior side—they can constantly see the next step in their development and are encouraged to strive for it. 

“The next generation of players come in through the same entrance as the first team, but then they turn left. The first-team players turn right. They can watch them train, they can see it, they can smell it and they can see they need to have it," Vieira says. 

“And with the medical advances here and the facilities we have, players can play three or four years longer than before.”

Everything a young person could possibly need to develop is provided by the CFA, but education is first and foremost in everyone’s mind. City are linked to St Bede’s, an independent school in Whalley Range. Every player has their education paid for until the age of 16, regardless of whether they are kept on at the club until then.

There are a host of classrooms around the campus for them to learn and complete their work. The canteen is designed to foster a feeling of togetherness, with long tables discouraging cliques from emerging. The age groups take it in turns to cook, with knowledge of food and nutrition another vital part of a player’s education. No stone is left unturned.

“It [the CFA] makes our job easier and more difficult at the same time,” Vieira admits. “Easier because we are showing to the youth that we give them everything to achieve their dream and I think when we have a facility like the CFA that is commitment from the football club, from the chairman to the young players, because we want to develop them and we want to give them the best facilities.

“The other side it makes it difficult because it is so good that sometimes young players think they have achieved before actually doing it.”

Despite such a trying season, Vieira is remarkably relaxed and upbeat as he prepares for the next stage of his development. Rumours abound that he is set to take a management job at one of Europe’s top clubs, with Marseille and Newcastle thought to have shown interest in luring the former Arsenal and Inter Milan midfielder earlier in the summer. But the Frenchman says he is happy to bide his time.

He will complete his coaching licence with the FA of Wales in September, and given the experience he has gained at City and his standing in the game, many feel the 38-year-old is ready to become a manager in his own right. Vieira, though, is happy to wait and prepare as thoroughly as possible before taking the step into management.

“I am still really young,” he says. “I don’t want to rush at all and I take the example of former players who rush into coaching and it was a mistake. I don’t want to make the same kind of mistakes.

“I’ll still take my time because coaching is really difficult and I want to have a better experience before making these kinds of decisions.”

Vieira’s young side play with a distinct style—an open, attractive brand of football that encourages each player to want possession of the ball. Technical quality is vital, as is discipline and intelligence. Each player, in theory, is being prepared for life in Manuel Pellegrini’s first team.

Vieira, though, believes the gap between EDS level and Pellegrini’s plans has never been bigger, and he is calling for a new “B Team” system to be introduced, to give young players experience of what he calls “man football.”

“When you play under 21s the gap is massive to the first team,” he says. “We played against Porto's B team, and they play man football every week—this is how you get close to the first team.

“For English football, we need the B teams so young players can play man football.

“What we want is to keep our players in our club and play with our philosophy. We don't want to send them on loan—we want to keep them, and the best way to keep them is to give them the game programme they need which is man football.”

Of the current EDS crop, Vieira picks out Angelino, a Spanish left-back who recently joined New York City on loan, and Pablo Maffeo, a regular at right-back who continues to make staggering progress, as his stand-out players this term.

Paolo Bruno/Getty Images

“I was really pleased because we were involved in the competition and we did really well. We managed to win one of them and other ones, lost in the quarter-final, semi-final, but more than the result is the way that the players played, and it was really interesting and it was really good.

“I was really pleased because they’d really improved from last year and our main job is to make them improve so that they can have a chance to play in the first-team football.

“But when we’re talking about individuals, I think Angelino was one of our best players, Pablo Maffeo was really good as well. Last year, Shay Facey was one of the most talented young players in England.

“I think when you are a young player and you play for Manchester City, you have the talent and I am really lucky to have the chance to work with some really young, good players.”

Vieira is highly regarded by almost everyone in football. He’s considered a Premier League great after a hugely successful spell at Arsenal between 1996-2005, and he went on to win four Serie A titles during his time with Juventus and Inter Milan. Add to that his World Cup and European Championship with France, and you're talking about one the game's most celebrated players. 

Imparting his knowledge and experience onto his young players is vital. So what, in his opinion, makes a winning side?

“It comes down to togetherness. To understand that you need to have the same goals and you can only achieve it if you work together and you can only achieve that if players understand where they stand and knowing who is who, and this is how you build a successful team.

Ian Walton/Getty Images

“If you talk about a successful team, you would talk about Arsenal, The Invincibles. I think what was really good in this team was that Sol Campbell didn’t try to be a Patrick Vieira, Patrick Vieira didn’t try to be a Thierry Henry, Thierry Henry didn’t try to be a Dennis Bergkamp.

“We knew who we were and we respected each other and we were fighting for the same goal. We knew that if we put our talent together we would achieve something, and I think that that is a successful team.

“But when you look at the German team that won the World Cup, their togetherness was unbelievable. I believe in football that if you don’t have that you won’t achieve anything.”

With Pellegrini and Txiki Begiristain, the club’s sporting director, set to embark on a spending spree, their first team could look somewhat different come August. Paul Pogba, a player Vieira feels he could have played alongside, is thought to be high on their list of priorities, as is Raheem Sterling, Liverpool’s 20-year-old forward. Vieira thinks Sterling has plenty to offer.

“If you go and ask 10 people what they think about him, I think nine would give you a positive answer, and I would be part of the nine people because he's shown how good he is, how well he's been doing at Liverpool.

“If he is in the market, not just City would be interested in him.”

Away from City, Vieira finds time to undertake challenging charity work. Together with Western Union and UNICEF, he has been central to the PASS campaign, which seeks to use football as a tool to promote the importance of education across the world.

Launched in 2012, the PASS campaign has turned every single successful pass made in the Europa League over the past three seasons into funding to support secondary education across the world. The money has been used to train teachers, improve school facilities and develop curricula. 

One million successful passes later, they have reached their target. 

“We did some work together (Vieira, Western Union and UNICEF) and it’s been a journey,” he says, reflecting on years of hard work.

“I remember three years ago when we started talking about how can we use football to try and develop education for young people and we had a target, we had a plan. Just now, when I was sitting down and talking about the last three years, it’s been fantastic what we can achieve using football.

Western Union/UNICEF

“Education is really important. Football is something really close to my heart and education is something that’s close to my heart as well, because I believe that we can use football to develop education, and the power of the game is so strong, I strongly believe we should use it more often.

“That’s why when we were talking with Western Union and trying to use football to promote education, for me it was something that really goes well together. If you look at the results we’ve had in the last three years, having more than one million passes and the number of children in education as well, I believe it was a success.”

As part of the initiative, Vieira paid a visit to Senegal, his birthplace, and it’s a trip which made a big impression on him.

“We’re talking about kids who want to achieve something in life, and that can be achieving an education. When we saw the power of the game, the power of football, I think we should use it more often.

“Even going there and seeing the smile on the kids’ faces because they’re kicking around a ball—that is the power of our game and that is what it’s all about. To give them the opportunity to achieve their dream. The dream can be playing football, or just to find a way to educate themselves and try to achieve what they want.”

Given their success, what’s next for the PASS campaign?

“With the success we had with the PASS initiative, we need to sit down around the table and discuss about can we make it bigger and try to involve more kids because it was really successful. Now I think it is time to look at the three years and see what can we do together to try to touch more kinds because that is our target.”

Patrick Vieira was speaking as lead ambassador of Western Union’s PASS initiative, which has used its UEFA Europa League sponsorship to convert passes on the pitch into better education off it for children around the world. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnTN-VUTrPE

Western Union/UNICEF

Rob Pollard is Bleacher Report's lead Manchester City correspondent and follows the club from a Manchester base. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter: @RobPollard.