Vieira very keen to regain his France place

The transfer movement during season's when there's a big tournament coming up are very interesting. The players seem to choose club, not the other way around as it is usually and the recent transfer of Patrick Vieira is the perfect example of this.

Vieira found it tough to break into the Inter Milan squad and has now moved to Manchester City. With the World Cup coming up it was really the only sensible thing to do. With the footballing world getting more competitive each year there are a lot of good players available for countries and very much so in the bigger ones, which Vieira's home nation France is.

Due do his lack of action for his club the midfielder hasn't made it to Raymond Domenech's recent sides with fitter and more match practise having players favoured. Now it's six months for Vieira to prove his worth to Les Blues and also Manchester City. City's new manager Roberto Mancini seems to be a big admirer of the Frenchman. He was the one, who brought Vieira to Inter and now also got his man for his new club. Even though, when you look at City's squad then a central midfield department seemed to be the last one needing improvement.

But that's how the transfer market works in these big tournament years. If a player with a big reputation makes himself available, claiming he need regular first-team football to seal his place in his international squad, then clubs will go for him no matter if there's really a need.

It will be seen how successful the deal will turn out to be. It's a good move for Vieira, but he's really using his new club to get back into the international frame. And who could blame him? Even with the big money involved in club football these days, the honour of representing your country's is above all, especially in a big tournament like the World Cup is.