Vieira appears to backtrack on his support for Daniel Ek’s attempt to purchase Arsenal | OneFootball

Patrick Vieira says he backed Daniel Ek’s attempt to buy Arsenal because he was worried that his former club was heading in the wrong direction.

The Crystal Palace manager, alongside Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp, lent their support to the Spotify owner’s bid to become the club’s newest owner.

However, he seems to have since changed his mind and in a recent interview ahead of his visit to the Emirates on Monday, he appears to distance himself from the bid.

He says he was just speaking previously as an individual and a former player of Arsenal who wants good things for his ex-club.

As a manager in the Premier League now, he is in a different position as he was a few months back and says his opinion on the attempted takeover is different.

He now believes a club will only be sold if the owner wants to sell it.

Vieira said as quoted by The Daily Mail: ‘I was just expressing myself as Patrick, ex-Arsenal football player and that comment was based on how the direction was going and I was talking to somebody who had maybe a different view and way of taking Arsenal Football Club and this is the reason why with Dennis and Thierry we were involved in the situation that Arsenal was.’

‘I am in a different position than a couple of months ago so I am not going to express myself in the same way when I was just an ex-Arsenal football player,’ he added.

‘When you’re looking at the situation at the time it was clear the Kroenke family was making the statement that the club was not for sale and then I think everything was over. You or anybody can’t buy a football club if this football club is not for sale.’