David Ornstein has dropped a major update in Crystal Palace's managerial hunt, with a deal apparently agreed for Roy Hodgson's successor
What's the talk?
According to The Athletic's David Ornstein, Crystal Palace have agreed a deal with Patrick Vieira to take over from Roy Hodgson heading into the 2021/22 Premier League season.
Vieira has been out of work since he left Ligue 1 side OGC Nice in December 2020 and is now set to take his first senior managerial role in England with The Eagles. The report claims that Palace swooped for Vieira after their attempts to bring Lucien Favre to the club failed earlier this month.
Fans will be frustrated
Crystal Palace fans will be frustrated by this news given other links to the vacant position.
Former Roma coach Paulo Fonseca was recently touted with a switch to Selhurst Park and his style of play has been described as "exciting" by The Athletic's Alex Stewart. He could have been an appointment for the supporters to get behind due to his attacking approach.
According to The Guardian, Vieira hammered his players at half-time of one game last season, eventually leading to his sacking at Nice. He is quoted as saying “We had a catastrophic first half in every capacity. If I could, I would substitute you all apart from three of you. I don’t give a s**t about the score". The article goes on to state that Vieira struggled to identify and implement a consistent style of play as he was unable to string together a convincing run of games with the French side in his final season before being dismissed.
This suggests that he would not be able to come in and install an attractive brand of football, which the appointment of Fonseca threatened to do, and that is why fans will be frustrated by this news. Some Palace fans have already taken to Twitter to voice their concerns:
These examples prove that there are some Palace fans are questioning the prospective move by the club. Vieira's managerial record in comparison to Fonseca does not help the Frenchman's cause, either.
The Portuguese boss averaged 1.77 points per game across 101 matches in charge of Roma in the Serie A, after earning 2.37 points per game in 139 matches for Shakhtar Donetsk. Vieira, meanwhile, averaged 1.58 points per game at New York City and 1.42 in 89 Ligue 1 matches for Nice.
Steve Parish could be heading for disaster with this move. Vieira does not have an impressive managerial record and the analysis of his time at Nice in the Guardian article makes for grim reading if you are a Palace supporter.
This is why fans will be disappointed by this news and hoping that Vieira can prove doubters wrong and be a success in the Premier League as a manager.
AND in other news, Parish must sanction CPFC swoop for “outstanding†29 y/o enforcer, fans would love it...