Well you may remember him as an outstanding part of that crack Arsenal squad called "the invincibles"(a season in which Arsenal lost no match in the Premier league throughout the season), this was one key highpoint of Arsene Wenger's reign as manager. Indeed Vieira won 3 Premier league titles with Arsenal as his time in Arsenal was also Wenger's most successful. Or maybe you recall his being a crucial part of that French team that won the France 98 World Cup. It's a little over a decade ago now he played in the Premier league and today at age 45 he is back in the English Premier league.
Crystal Palace football club has officially signed Patrick Vieira as their manager on a 3-year deal that will run through 2024. This for me is fantastic! The kind of players Crystal Palace have recruited lately have been begging for such a coach. Infact when Zidane was unemployed(before his second stint with Madrid) I was wishing he came to Palace. Yeah you might call it a tall dream, but that's how much I felt the players in Palace are due for a world class coach with all due respect to their immediate past coach, the 73yr old Roy Hodgson who did a decent job. He has been coaching for over 45yrs and has altogether retired from coaching in the English elite league at least.
I have a lot of sympathy for a player like the English born Ivorian, Wilfried Zaha. A player who quite frankly is too good to be in Palace, he can easily turn out for any big club world over, he's that good! Summer after summer big clubs talk of buying him even dropping bids for him, only for deals to fall through of no fault of his. So I felt the way to compensate such a huge talent is to get him a good coach– that way he will be consoled by his club's improved performance and in turn that will help to increase the desire of big clubs to get him.
Vieira is no Zidane in quality yet, but I think he is an upgrade on Roy Hodgson, so I will take it. Palace were set to appoint Frank Lampard(infact indeed Lampard had already started identifying transfer targets) a few weeks back only for Frank to sensationally pull out of the deal citing the fact that lots of players will be out of contract by June ending and as such it will be a huge rebuilding job for him to undeertake which could make him sucked into a relegation battle. It is on record Palace's Chairman threw his full weight behind Lampard's appointment as he expected a more competitive team under his watch and particularly a more attractive style of play. Now talking of attractive, you can't talk of a man who spent 10yrs with the Gunners of Arsenal and even captained the side and you won't talk of attractive football. He is even more experienced than Lampard– after retiring from football he coached Manchester City's reserve team, then in 2016 he was appointed as coach of City's sister club– New York City FC, where he too then to consecutive quarter-final MLS playoffs in a two-and-a-half year stay there. Just immediately after this he was appointed the manager of Nice in the summer of 2018. Here he took the reins and drove them to a seventh-place finish in his first season. In the second season he bettered that and they finished fifth qualifying for European football too. A run of some consecutive losses and exit from the Europa League last December was something the Nice heirarchy couldn't stomach and it cost him his job. He implemented an attractive brand of football in both clubs.
I am an Arsenal supporter and always preferred a Vieira appointment for Arsenal to an Arteta's. Infact I was hoping Arsenal would do a Vieira- Henry combo as coach before they appointed Unai Emery. So please forgive me if I have a hidden agenda here.[smiles]. I think this will be an excellent way to audition for the Gunners job. I am sure the issue of player contracts won't be an issue here because, players will want to stay upon hearing a guy like Vieira will coach them. Also Vieira's huge image in England will naturally attract players to the club. He already has beautiful players to work with apart from Zaha. There's Jeffery Schlupp, Patrick Van Aanholt, the dynamite Eberechi Eze, Nathaniel Clyne, Joel Ward, Jordan Ayew with very experienced players in defence.
On his part Patrick Viera has expressed his delight on this new appointment– "I am really excited to have this opportunity to return to the Premier League, and manage this great football club, as we begin a new chapter together,..." . He added that he was impressed by the club's project, academy and fans and he is willing to advance the same.
What can I say? Welcome back Mr. Vieira to a land you can call home.
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