How Vieira is masterminding a revolution at Palace (… just don’t mention De Boer)
Last attempt at a major overhaul with a famous foreign coach ended badly but the fans hope this time will be different
For any Crystal Palace supporters feeling a twinge of apprehension ahead of a new season with a new manager and a raft of new players, there is at least one consolation: Patrick Vieira has done this before.
True, it was not in the Premier League, and it was not in front of a global audience, but the man Palace have entrusted with arguably the most drastic rebuilding job in the history of the league does at least have experience of transforming the style of a team.
It came in Vieira’s first coaching role, with Manchester City’s elite development squad, in 2013. The French World Cup winner made it clear on his first day in charge that the club’s young stars were to adopt a more progressive, possessionbased style, building from the back whenever they could.
“It was a completely different way of playing,” Ian Lawlor, Vieira’s goalkeeper at City, recalls. “We were trying to implement different things, stuff I had never seen before. I will never forget one of the things he told me. He said: ‘I am asking you to play like this. If you make a mistake while doing it, I will fully take the blame.’ It gave you a belief.”
Palace will need that kind of belief as they step nervously into their new era, which begins with a trip to the European champions, Chelsea, a match that will provide the most severe stress test of their principles. “We are ambitious,” Vieira said yesterday. “We want to perform, we want to compete.”
No other Premier League club have undergone a transformation like Palace’s this summer. Roy Hodgson and his coaching staff have departed after four years in which Palace never seriously flirted with relegation (they have not dipped into the bottom three since December 2017) and eight senior professionals, including Gary Cahill, Scott Dann and Andros Townsend, have left, taking 1,792 Premier League appearances with them.
Palace’s hierarchy have stressed that the expiry of a series of firstteam contracts, and the exit of Hodgson, presented an unprecedented and exhilarating opportunity to rebuild. The pressure is now on Vieira, who was not the first choice as manager (Nuno Espirito Santo and Lucien Favre both came close to taking the job), to show that the excitement was justified. It is an enormous job for a relatively inexperienced coach. Since leaving City, the 45-year-old has managed two senior sides: New York City FC and Nice. In both jobs he showed genuine promise, without spectacular
success. He led Nice to fifth in Ligue 1 in 2019-20, but was sacked last December with the club 11th and the team lacking a clear identity. It will help his cause, surely, that he earned such a formidable reputation in his playing days. Arsenal captain, “Invincibles” leader, and a serial champion with France, Vieira has more playing pedigree than any other Premier League manager. “When he got the job, we were in awe,” Lawlor says. “If he walked into a room, you would feel his presence. He is a big man and he had an aura.”
The narrative from those outside Palace is that this will be a sequel to the disastrous Frank de Boer experiment in 2017. The Dutchman was tasked with revolutionising Palace’s approach after replacing Sam Allardyce: five games and 77 days later, he had been sacked, with the club wrapping themselves in the comfort blanket of Hodgson’s functional, but effective, football.
The circumstances, however, are markedly different. De Boer had largely the same squad to work with, whereas Vieira has a minivan’s worth of impressionable fresh faces at his disposal. Ball-playing defenders Marc Guehi and Joachim Andersen (signed for £20million from Chelsea and £15million from Lyon, respectively) are suited to a more possession-based style of play, while Conor Gallagher (on loan from Chelsea) should bring energy to a previously stodgy midfield. Michael Olise (£8million from Reading), meanwhile, will provide invention.
Vieira wants, and expects, more additions. “We are a little short up front and in the midfield,” he said. As for the nature of the overhaul, he believes Palace are taking the bold approach. “When you make those decisions, it is not easy but I think the club has been really brave. People have to recognise it was the right thing to do.”
Just as important as the signings is the culture Vieira will create. De Boer’s results were disastrous, but Palace chairman Steve Parish was more concerned at the complete breakdown of relations between the
head coach and his squad. One former employee tells a story of introducing himself to De Boer before a pre-season match and explaining his role. De Boer simply replied, “OK”, before walking away.
Palace will hope that Vieira will prove more collegiate. It already feels noteworthy that Wilfried Zaha, who has previously made no secret of his desire to move on, has been electric in pre-season. “He has been fantastic,” Vieira said.
The only question is whether they have done too much, too quickly. It is Vieira who must find the balance, evolving the team but also retaining a Hodgson-esque dash of pragmatism – starting with a run of fixtures in which they face six of last season’s top eight by Oct 18.
In his days at City, Vieira was insistent on the style he wanted, but not to the extent that there was no flexibility. “The decision was up to the player,” Lawlor says. “He was calm, although if someone needed to be told something, they would be told. He gave us clear messages.”
For Vieira, this could be a defining moment in his coaching career. This rebuild represents a glorious opportunity, but also an enormous challenge. It will soon become clear whether that task is too big, or whether one of the Premier League’s greatest ever players is as capable on the touchline as he was on the pitch.