Pulis makes bizarre claim Arsenal only cared about Stoke under Wenger and says Vieira TOLD him… but dates don’t add up
FORMER Stoke City boss Tony Pulis has made the bizarre claim that Arsenal only cared about playing Stoke City under Arsene Wenger.
The 65-old manager recently spoke to the Undr The Cosh podcast, when he recounted a story told to him by Patrick Vieira.
However, the game Pulis mentions seemingly happened FIVE years AFTER Vieira left the Gunners.
The story goes that Crystal Palace boss Vieira was doing his coaching badges and attended a session Pulis was invited to do.
“The Welsh FA ring me up and ask me to do a day coaching and a lecture,” Pulis revealed to the Undr The Cosh podcast.
“I go up there, I do a session on the pitch and then the players go and have something to eat and you come back and talk about what you did, what you didn’t do, and whatever.
“It was for the full badge and Patrick Vieira was there and Jens Lehmann.
“And I’m thinking, ‘oh God, two Arsenal players. What’s this going to be like?’
“Anyway, the session finishes and in the corner I see the two of them stood there – and I’m thinking, ‘oh my God, what are they going to be like?’
“I walk over, they come over and they were brilliant.
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“Patrick told me a story and he said one of the funniest things that ever happened was that Arsene would not care about any other club in the league apart from yourselves, when we came to Stoke.
“He said one day we took a session and he showed us about the long throw, where it would go, how we would have to defend it, and this, that, and the other.
“It was all about the throw, nothing else, all about the throw.
“I think it was the cup game. He said we turn up at the Bet 365 Stadium, look at the team sheet and Rory’s (Delap) not playing.
“And the worst thing about it, he said, was that you beat us 3-1!”
“That was Patrick telling me that story.”
However, Gunners fans might be confused by the story – with Vieira leaving Arsenal in 2005 – the same year he helped Arsenal BEAT Stoke 3-1 at Highbury in the FA Cup. And Stoke weren’t promoted to the Premier three years after that.
Better still, the cup game Pulis mentioned happened in 2010 – with Arsenal boasting a midfield of Cesc Fabregas, Francis Coquelin, Theo Walcott and Denilson.
Rory Delap played 85 minutes, before he was replaced in the 85th minute by Salif Diao.