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So, one word describes my feelings towards Paddy and that word is gratitude. Thanks for being Arsene's first and most inspirational signing; thanks for leading the revolution from dour "1-0 to the Arsenal" to the attractive, free flowing successful football we enjoy now; thanks for the passion you showed and thanks for your devotion and loyalty. There will always be a place in our hearts for you Paddy, because you'll always be Arsenal through and through.
And yet, despite this praise and the domestic success we have enjoyed whilst he has been with us, our performances in the Champions League over the last six seasons have disappointed me and reminded me of a Peggy Lee song called "Is that all that there is?" In our six years of playing in the Champions League, we have always been knocked out of the competition by a team that has had a cleverer, more effective and overall better midfield than us. A team with a midfield that retained possession of the ball and made us look like a Coca Cola Championship side. Is that all that there is of Arsenal's ability to win in Europe?
This feeling best encapsulated by our performance at Highbury this March against a "weak" Bayern Munich side. All we had to do was dominate the game and the two goals would have come naturally through an attack consisting at various stages of Henry, Bergkamp, Van Persie, Reyes, Ljungberg and Pires (yep, Arsene reverted to a 4-2-4 formation again in an attempt to force a late goal). Against us we had an aged German midfield of Deisler and Ballack who were happy to give us a one goal start and play in second gear throughout the match because they knew they could cope with our rather pedestrian and predictable midfield (and to make it worse, this was on a night when a "struggling" Liverpool had brushed aside Bayer Leverkusen to win their Champions League tie 6-2 on aggregate).
It was on this cold and dark night that I realised that, in order to win the Champions League, we would need to rebuild our midfield and radically revise our approach to how we played, particularly in midfield. And with Paddy being so fundamentally important to our game, there was a large question over whether such a rebuilding could be achieved with him still in the side. Why? Because Paddy ran our midfield. He was the heart of our side and the Clapham Junction through which every ball ran, from defence through to our counter attacks and fast pre-emptive strikes; sadly for us, the opposition knew this too and in six years of Champions League football we had always fallen to a better organised midfield and one that was capable of making Paddy look irrelevant. What was worse was that some Premier League teams had worked this out as well. The message to our opponents was stop Vieira and you stop Arsenal playing.
So he has gone and I am distraught. We must all trust that Arsene and the board have sound tactical reasons for encouraging his departure and that Arsene will rebuild the side with the main changes coming in the heart of our midfield. But here's the warning from us fans to Arsene and the Board. You have sold the best midfielder of his generation to one of our Champions League rivals and it is a brave and perhaps inspired decision, but as supporters we demand that he is replaced by someone of quality and experience who can transform our midfield and with it our chances in Europe. Because for Arsenal to be knocked out of the Champions League next season so cheaply, or even worse, be beaten by a Vieira-inspired Juventus team will be unforgivable.