If you’re a Crystal Palace supporter, you can be forgiven for not knowing what you are going to get. First, Roy Hodgson retires. Then you think you might get Nuno Espirito Santo. When that falls down, you are pretty sure it’s going to be Lucien Favre, the former Borussia Dortmund manager. Even the club are certain it will happen. Only, at the final moment, it doesn’t. Suddenly, Patrick Vieira is the man in charge.
A legend on the pitch but still learning in the dugout. The biggest test of managerial career, following roles at Manchester City’s academy, New York City and Nice. His last job at the French club ended after two-and-a-half years with his team 11th in Ligue 1. A gamble, no doubt.
With Hodgson, you knew what you would get. Pragmatic, not much flair, but safety. With Vieira, it’s not quite as clear.
Patrick Vieira's appointment as Crystal Palace manager is a change in direction for the club
From those who have worked with him and under him they speak of a man with high standards. You don’t achieve what he has in the game without them. Someone with strong beliefs of how his teams should play: out from the back, dominant, winning it back quickly.
They talk of a studious, hungry manager. A sponge. One who observes other coaches, tries to soak up the aspects of their game that make them successful. Marcelo Bielsa, of course. Jurgen Klopp, Maurizio Sarri. He took particular interest in how Gian Piero Gasperini turned Atalanta into a unique attacking outfit. Pep Guardiola, too.
‘Pep is a guy he admires but is not the only one,’ Christian Lattanzio, Vieira’s assistant at Man City, New York City and Nice tells The Mail on Sunday. ‘He doesn’t have a coach who is his idol. Patrick is not a clone. He has his own way of looking at football. He likes to see what people do to have success and why and see whether they can fit into how his teams play.’
Palace were more of a pragmatic side under the guidance of former manager Roy Hodgson
There are few who know Vieira’s methods better than Lattanzio. He’s been his right-hand man all the way through. Lattanzio saw Vieira finish his playing career at Man City, who then took a sabbatical as a club ambassador before deciding for sure it was coaching he wanted to pursue.
‘Patrick was complete. He’s a guy who if you told me he was going to become a coach, I’d say yes. If you told me he was going to go into the media, I’d say yes. Can he go upstairs and work with the management group, I’d say yes. He can do a lot of things. I think in England you call it a “one-trick pony”. Well, Patrick has got many tricks.’
One of them is a belief in giving those around him a voice. No ego. At Man City, Vieira made sure he learned all the names of his players before he started coaching them. He’s spoken of how important it is to feel close to his squad.
‘You think about what he’s done in his career, all the things he’s done, and he still had time for every person,” George Swan, who played under Vieira at City, told the Athletic.
Vieira respects and admires many managers including Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola
He’s a man of principle, encouraging his players to walk off the pitch in 2014 when teenager Seko Fofana was racially abused.
He set standards. At half-time during a game in the 2018-19 season, he told his players at half-time: ‘If I
