PADDY GOBBING AT RUDDOCK

“​​He has said he is sorry for what he did. He is not a bad boy. He may not always be the master of his reactions and he over-reacts sometimes but he is a genuine type who only thinks about playing football and never tries to do anybody."

Arsene Wenger defends Patrick Vieira after the Frenchman is handed a six-game ban by the FA

__

​​Patrick Vieira may have been one of the Premier League's most complete midfielders but when he lost his head, he was also its most combustible. 

During nine years at Arsenal, the Frenchman was red carded eight times; a feat matched by only two other Premier League players, Richard Dunne and Duncan Ferguson. 

Vieira’s inability to control himself in the heat of battle came at an expense. Not only did he miss a lot of football - a real headache for Arsene Wenger - but his bank balance also took a considerable hit. 

Of all the punishments he received from The FA, none was bigger than the six-game ban and £45,000 fine meted out for an ugly incident at West Ham in October 1999. 

Arsenal “should have won with ease,” was the verdict of the club’s match report. Instead, they slumped to a damaging 2-1 defeat that cut them adrift of Manchester United. 

The frustration was palpable on an afternoon when Paulo di Canio was the Gunners’ tormentor-in-chief. Not only did the Italian score both goals for the home side, he also lured Vieira into two late challenges that referee Mike Reid deemed worthy of bookings. 

"I don't think Patrick deserved the first booking, nor the second,” said Arsene Wenger afterwards. "When a player cheats, it's annoying, but when the referee is fooled, it's doubly annoying.”

After the second yellow, on 85 minutes, all hell broke loose. 

Vieira initially looked like he’d take his dismissal on the chin - he started trudging towards the tunnel - but as the home fans howled at him, the red mist descended and he decided to have it out with the man in the middle. He had a few obstacles to get through first, namely Neil ‘Razor’ Ruddock, who’d sprinted 40 yards to inflame the situation with a volley of expletives. 

Vieira barely even registered the West Ham defender as he instinctively stuck an arm in his face. It was, judging by the snarky look on his opponent’s face, exactly the reaction Ruddock was after. Leaning back, feigning innocent surprise, Ruddock continued hamming up the situation while Gilles Grimandi stepped in to keep Vieira at arm’s length. 

It’s not clear what Ruddock said next but Vieira’s reaction was to yack up the phlegm in his throat and gob in the defender’s direction. Even though he missed, the damage was done. The sound of knives being sharpened on Fleet Street travelled all the way to the Boleyn Ground. 

"I tried to calm things down, but he just spat in my face,” Ruddock said later. “He's the lowest of the low. He deserves a long ban if he's going to spit in people's faces. I've been in scraps before but I've never, ever spat at anybody.” 

Things would get worse for Vieira. Still running hot as he made his way back to the changing room, he somehow ended up in a confrontation with a policeman. Details were fed back to The Football Association who added another charge to his rap sheet. 

The fallout lasted for weeks. While Vieira went on ITV’s On The Ball to apologise saying "I want people to speak about me like a player, not a bad boy”, Ruddock, enjoying his moment in the limelight, continued to stir the pot. Appearing on Sky Sports’ Soccer AM, he said: “Vieira missed but was near enough for me to smell the garlic on his breath." 

Arsenal jumped on the comments as evidence that their player, who claimed to have been called a “French prat” during the game, had been racially abused. Much to the annoyance of Harry Redknapp, Ruddock was also placed under investigation although he would later be reprieved. 

Vieira was never going to get off and his punishment came in two parts. A four-game ban and a £30,000 fine for spitting and a two-game ban and a £15,000 fine for his coming together with the police. It provoked a lot of soul-searching. 

Speaking to The Mirror in May 2003 he reflected: "I was punished really, really hard and that was tough to take, football-wise, but my pride and my self-respect were what really suffered.

"What I could not accept was that in my reaction I allowed some of those same stupid people, racists, to see me on TV and think to themselves 'Yes, that is what black people do'.

"It's still too common that some in society look to put black people down and I was sending them the wrong image. Ruddock caused it by what he said as I felt it was a racist comment. But that happens. I must accept I will encounter stupid people like him wherever I go in the world.

"But at that time I was getting red card after red card and when the fines and suspensions hit you it's easy to say to yourself it is because you are French or because you are black. It went through my mind that referees were looking for me because of that.

"However, when important people who you care about aren't afraid to tell you the truth, they make you understand you're in the wrong. When you finally accept it's too easy to blame everyone else and not yourself, that's when you're able to change."