Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira admits moving to AC Milan as a teen was "unbelievable".

After impressing for Cannes, Vieira continued his rapid development at AC Milan, where he played alongside the likes of Marco van Basten, Paolo Maldini and Franco Baresi.

“It was unbelievable," he told Arsenal Player. “I felt like a kid to play with Alessandro Costacurta, Roberto Baggio and George Weah. I was looking around in the dressing room and I said, 'What am I doing here?'.

“Capello was the manager and when he was doing his tactical training, I was always going behind Marcel Desailly or Demetrio Albertini, so I learned my movement on the pitch from them. I spent a year there and I left because I wanted to be part of the France 1998 World Cup team and I needed to play.

“At that time Ajax were one of the best teams around and I was quite interested, but we were talking for four days and the deal didn't happen. Arsène called me telling me he'd be in charge of Arsenal if I wanted to go. I didn't know anything about England or anything about Arsenal, but I knew a lot about Arsène and his reputation, so I went straight away.

“I didn't know where I was going, I just knew it was in England. I knew it was in London but I didn't know a lot about Arsenal. Seeing the big-name players around, it was completely different. The language was difficult, the culture was completely different, the game I knew was completely different.

“I had to prove everything because I was coming from Milan and nobody knew me. I was a young talent who hadn't done anything, so I had it all to prove and all to do."