Gary Neville once suggested that Mikel Arteta's reluctance to use £34million signing Fabio Vieira meant the Arsenal boss didn't trust the midfielder.
The Gunners boss soon responded by heaping praise on the former Porto star, but actions speak louder than words. It is one thing to use Vieira sparingly, it is of course his first season in English football and bumps along the road are to be expected. However, the kind of players Arsenal are now being linked with this summer suggests that perhaps Arteta doesn't view Vieira as a long-term solution after all.
Neville's claim came back in January in the aftermath of Arsenal's 0-0 home draw against Newcastle. It was a fixture that saw the Magpies camped in their own half for much of the game as the Gunners tried in vain to break down their low-block.
The kind of game that was crying out for a creative midfielder to come on and unpick the Newcastle lock. Yet, Vieira remained on the bench as an unused substitute, something that did not escape the attention of Neville.
"Arteta, he looks at £34 million Vieira on his bench and doesn’t bring him on, so he doesn’t have faith that he’s going to improve the team that was out there," the Manchester United legend told Sky Sports.
"Fabio Vieira cost £34million. Mikel obviously thought he would’ve weakened the side by bringing him on."
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Many sections of the Gunners faithful did not take much notice at the time, but six months later Arsenal are being linked with a plethora of midfielders that will surely only put Vieira further down the pecking order.
The Portugal Under-21 international already struggles for game time behind the likes of Martin Odegaard, Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey.
Though it seems likely that Xhaka will depart, there's a strong chance Arsenal could end up with all of Declan Rice, Romeo Lavia and Kai Havertz before the window closes.
Two of the aforementioned three are midfielders by trade, while Havertz can operate as an attacking midfielder as well as a forward.
Should Arteta view the current Chelsea man as more of the former, that would surely place Vieira behind at least both of Havertz and club captain Odegaard.
Vieira has been used in place of Xhaka before in a more deeper role than he is familar with, but with Arsenal's second bid of £90m for Rice due at some point on Tuesday, Arteta will no longer need him to deputise for the Switzerland international.
