Patrick Vieira had a long and very succesful time with Arsenal as a player and did also play for Man City in the Premier League during his fantastic career as a player. He has a past of playing under managers such as Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho and Roberto Mancini, and before taking over the management position after Roy Hodgson at Crystal Palace been in charge of MLS club New York City and latest Nice in French Ligue 1.
With a bit of an academy approch not surprised to see the addition of Conor Gallagher coming in on loan from Chelsea. Another youngster arriving from Stamford Bridge is England U.21 international, Marc Guehi (21). A player that impressed on loan at Swansea last season and will be interesting to watch going forward.
If you add the on loan forward Jean Philippe Mateta to the group of new, you have an interesting group of new recruits as Patrick Vieira makes his steps in football management. At the age of 45 he can become one of the major men in this trade for the years to come.
The run in management has not yet been at the level of his playing career and the chance to take over at Selhurst Park came as a huge surprise as his approach to the game is so different from what we did see with the more pragmatic Roy Hodgson who was an old school man doing his best jobs with teams not pushing to play the game.
Frank de Boer who was replaced with Roy Hodgson is a similiar to Patrick Vieira building his teams on his own self belief and with a massive self confidence trying to bring their approach forward, but often forgetting that the player material might not be at the level needed to play with a very offensive and attacking style.
Embed from Getty ImagesUnder the guidence of Roy Hodgson it was a clear set up and always a belief that defense is the most important part and with that in mind looking pragmatic about the level of quality the team had and from there building a base that everyone believed in and was possible to understand.
The fact that the Crystal Palace team no longer have parted company with players such as Gary Cahill, Wayne Hennessey, Scott Dann, Patrick van Aanholt, Mamadou Sakou, James McCarthy, Andros Townsend and Conor Wickham and only made two signings with PL experience, Joachim Andersen and Conor Gallagher (on loan).
The signing for Reading wonderboy Michael Olise (19) is of course great and will be exciting to watch the player as he takes his next steps in football. The fact that Joel Ward has signed a new contract and that you have good quality still in the squad with players such as Wilfred Zaha and Eberechi Eze hopefully taking their next full steps towards becoming top quality and taking more of a leading role it could well be a very interesting season.
The major challenge for Patrick Vieira, with no experience from the hardest and most difficult league on the planet, is to understand what Roy Hodgson put in place at Selhurst Park and not forget the momentum if not it could be again a grim scenario as we did see under Frank de Boer coming in after Sam Allardyce.
To bring a football club forward from a time under strict rules and guidance by a man like Roy Hodgson and also having a past experience with Sam Allardyce risks are taken with a manager coming in from abroad in the mirror of De Boer’s appointment. The fact that Ray Lewington is gone and Kristian Wilson is appointed as first team coach, you start to wonder how the academy plan will work out.
Embed from Getty ImagesThere are traps to fall into and at Crystal Palace they have now again gone for a posh and polished approach with a modern manager that himself ruled the field, with a previous life seen the dinosours being rolled in to fix the mess when those unexperienced men have struggled heavily, so with that perspective it might be possible to yet again watching The Eagles thinking, Neil Warnock, Roy Hodgson and Sam Allardyce, they are so different from the climate now established, hopefully it will end good and not in a new big return for the traditional success formula.
The way forward for Crystal Palace as we have seen in the past is to hire a man with grand experience from the game and also being able to keep himself on the groundfloor with a modest and down to earth approach, listening to Patrick Vieira talking about changing the way of play, is like a radio on repeat and it might be a dangerous path to start walking on. Assistant manager is also a new face, but with a long life in international football and also with a long life in advisory roles for the Welsh FA, and also being caretaker of the national team, his name is Osian Roberts.
There are of course some continuity at Selhurst Park with owner Sean Parish being there and with director of football Dougie Freedman also seen in the background. Not to forget Mr. Crystal Palace, Steve Kember, still scouting for the club, been a manager and player in the previous past.
Another interesting PL season soon starting for Crystal Palace, being unbeaten in pre-season, could see a change in life at the club and if that will happen you will be more entertained at games than ever before.
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