Had Patrick Vieira’s interview at Fulham gone differently, he may well not have ended up as Crystal Palace’s head coach.
Fulham were interested in the former Arsenal midfielder after parting company with Scott Parker following relegation from the Premier League. But those involved in the interview did not feel as though Vieira knew as much about Fulham or its players as they would have hoped of a prospective new manager, and turned elsewhere.
That was not, however, the case when Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish discussed the club’s vacant manager job with Vieira following the departure of Roy Hodgson. Palace held talks with Nuno Espirito Santo, but the Portuguese wanted to bring a large team of his own — around seven or eight staff — whereas Vieira was comfortable slotting into the existing structure Parish has spent so many years cultivating. And Palace liked Vieira’s simplicity.
Even so, from the outside there was some uncertainty to the appointment. Vieira was impressive at Manchester City’s academy but received mixed reviews in charge of French side Nice, where he was sacked in December last year when a two-and-a-half year spell ended with five successive defeats.
There was an undoubted star quality to Vieira’s name — a World Cup and European Championship winner with France, a three-time Premier League winner with Arsenal, a Champions League and four-time Serie A winner with Inter Milan. Yet for a player of his stature, players and staff at his new club have been surprised by his humble nature and distinct lack of ego.
Another feature not expected of a 6ft 4ins player who once aggressively dominated Premier League midfields and clashed often with Roy Keane, is how softly and calmly he often speaks. A whispering giant.
Vieira has been seen as the polar opposite to Hodgson, whose approach while manager was to stay solid defensively in a rigid 4-4-2 and try to nick a goal. Instead, Vieira has focussed more on possession, what players do with the ball when they have it, encouraging flair players — such as Wilfried Zaha — to express themselves freely.
That has not, of course, been without its teething problems. Vieira prefers to chase a second goal rather than maintain a slender lead, and they conceded in the 90th-minute against Arsenal and Brighton to turn three points into one.
Nonetheless, they are 10th in the table with 15 points after 11 games, and those who have followed them closely this season believe they could easily have had six points more — a total that would have put them above Arsenal in fifth and only two points behind Manchester City in second.
All of that is not to discredit Hodgson, whose achievements in four years at Crystal Palace helped create the club they have become. “How the club has been built over the last 10 years, it didn’t go from zero to 10,” Vieira said recently. “It went step by step and the aim is to always try to build a sustainable football club.”
The recent opening of a stunning £20 million academy facility, a short walk from the first-team’s Beckenham training ground, is a big part of that. When giving a speech ahead of cutting the ribbon to officially open the facility, England manager Gareth Southgate recalled his own experiences coming through Crystal Palace’s academy and into the first team when the options in the canteen were meat pies and sausage sandwiches.
In four months at the club, Vieira has been known to stay late at the training ground — often not leaving until 6pm when most others have long gone (training tends to finish in the early afternoon) — and sees watching the academy players train and play and working out how to fit them into the first-team as an essential part of his role at the club. Parish made it crystal clear to Vieira during discussions that integrating academy players into the first-team was an important part of his vision.
Vieira has already included some of the Under 18s training with the first-team and, especially during the international breaks when senior players can be missing, likes to give teenagers a taste of what that’s like.
Training ground staff have been impressed with his attention to detail, and even some of the finer points, such as ensuring training warm-ups are thorough before putting players through shorter, sharper, more-focussed sessions. Crystal Palace have a good record with injuries so far this season, and that is thought to be a significant factor in their strong start.
Soon after arriving, Vieira promoted Shaun Derry, who had been Under 23s manager since September 2019, to first-team coach to further reinforce the bridge between academy and first-team.
And Vieira’s early success with and handling of Conor Gallagher has shown much promise in that regard. Though Gallagher is on loan from Chelsea — and Vieira is said to have played a significant role in convincing the player Palace was the right place for him — it has demonstrated an ability to integrate a young player lacking experience into a promising Premier League footballer. The 21-year-old’s 11 appearances this season have been so impressive that Southgate included him in his recent England squad.
Palace will be hoping plenty of their own can follow a similar trajectory.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3oKURNz
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