Despite Steve Parish’s reputation, we have not been a trigger happy club when it comes to losing managers. In fact, if you discount managers sacking us, we have only got rid of four managers since 2013 – Holloway, Warnock, Pardew and De Boer.
Unfortunately, taking into account the managers who have left of their own accord (Pulis, Allardyce, Hodgson) there has been a fair turnover in our managers. From the days of George Burley (remember him?) Parish has learned a lot about choosing managers and with a couple of major mistakes along the way, he has hired pretty well.
With Patrick Vieira he has picked what I consider to be the perfect manager for Palace right now. It is far too early in Viera’s reign to say he is the best but I hope in a year or two we can start to have that debate! I have five reasons why Patrick Vieira is the perfect Palace manager:
We Love An Underdog
Patrick Vieira may have been a world class central midfielder playing for a multi trophy winning ‘invincible’ Arsenal but in July 2021 he was a relatively inexperienced manager with his first managerial sacking (at Nice) under his belt. He was clearly not our first choice (at best third choice) but with hindsight that was the perfect Palace background. We are an underdog club with a history of finding players who have had some bumps in the road in their careers who thrive in SE25. From Ian Wright to Damien Delaney to Eberechi Eze, that is Palace. Vieira, as a manager, fits right into that mould and we love him for it.
Patrick Got Palace From Day One
Linked to our underdog status we all know Thornton Heath is not the wealthiest area. The first time I took a friend of mine to Selhurst Park he spent most of the walk to the ground saying how much the area reminded him of his university town-Detroit. He seemed happy to be reminded of his younger days but it’s not a great geographical comparison. From Patrick’s prominent support of the Palace For Life Foundation, both at Foundation events and in a variety of Palace For Life videos it is clear that he recognises the economic challenges faced by people in the Palace catchment area and wants to contribute in any way he can to help people whether it is via the Foundation or otherwise.
Vieira Knows His Way Around The Premier League
It is a cliché but just because a player has had great success in the Premier League does not mean they are going to be a successful manager. There is a long list of names to prove this point – Gary Neville, Roy Keane, and Paul Scholes are just the first ones that spring to mind.
The signs are good for Vieira and it is clear that he is bringing the standards and attitude of a Premier League winner to the squad. Vieira has made it clear he wants the team to be more “streetwise “ in their game management and Andersen’s handling of Darwin Nunez getting sent off is a good example. Nothing that physically endangers our players or the opposition or risks a red card for one of our players but enough to wind up an opponent so that they do something silly. We have never been great at these types of tactics and whilst a purist might object to our use of the so called dark arts, it is something that the very top clubs do.
If we are serious about wanting to break out of the “just avoid relegation ” mentality, Patrick has correctly identified these are the types of things we need to do. We have already evolved our playing style to one that is closer to the top clubs and each refinement in our playing style and attitude introduced by Vieira should bring us closer to our objective.
Vieira Is A Humble Winner
You can see it every time in a press conference when a journalist makes some link between Vieira’s playing days and the upcoming match. The classic questions last season revolved around Viera’s record as an Arsenal player and what that meant when Palace were playing that same opponent in an upcoming match. You could see the mental eye roll although Vieira has an excellent poker face and would simply smile, shake his head and highlight there is no relevance to his playing days and how the team he manages will perform.
Although behind the scenes it could be very different, as far as I can see, Vieira has no desire to relive past glories or tell his players about how he did things in his day. Unlike Frank de Boer who apparently revelled in showing how he still “had it” on the pitch, Vieira seems to have no ego and is focussed entirely on getting the best out of the players and squad at his disposal. Once again that is very Palace – think Steve Coppell and Roy Hodgson. And of course we have had our egotistical managers – in fact the list is actually quite long (Alan Pardew’s Wembley dance anyone?) but the best ones have been the ones that kept their heads down and focussed on the club and the team and not themselves.
The Proof Is In The Results
After a better than expected (feared) 2021-22, we seem to have started where we left off this season and with one or two more decent signings we could be in a position to finish higher than last season. I will not tempt fate by talking about Europe or even a top ten finish but based on only four league matches (so clearly early days) we look to be in a position to improve on last season in terms of our results. The biggest change has been our style of football and the type of players recruited. Although the club was very much moving this direction anyway, Vieira has been recruited to implement the club’s change of direction. So far he has done a steady but effective job; changing the direction of the club in a positive way both in results and the attractiveness of the football.
Although Patrick Vieira has taken some early strides towards becoming one of our better managers, he still needs some time and results to confirm his status. However, I cannot think of a better manager for our club right now.
