Patrick Vieira: Crystal Palace are ambitious but players need time to adjust

Patrick Vieira has promised Crystal Palace will be ambitious under his management but urged a degree of patience with his new-look team.

The Eagles begin a new era away to Champions League winners Chelsea on Saturday, with a number of changes occurring at Selhurst Park during the summer.

Roy Hodgson stepped down after four years at the helm and nine first-teamers departed, including the likes of Gary Cahill, Scott Dann, Patrick Van Aanholt and Andros Townsend, while a raft of new additions have arrived in the shape of defenders Marc Guehi and Joachim Andersen as well as Michael Olise.

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Vieira, who was only appointed at the start of July, said: “Of course those players need time and as a manager to put my ideas in place may take longer, but we are quite ambitious and want to perform and compete at this level.

“We are really in a positive way the fact we started the pre-season in a good way, with the way we played those games, and we managed to get a couple of wins that give us confidence, but we know at the same time it will be equally challenging. We will be ready to compete and we want to compete.

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“I think this football club has some values. When you look at the way the team conducts itself in the last couple of years, fighting to stay in the Premier League, commitment and hard work is part of the DNA and that is something we have to keep.

“But it will be important for me to try to implement the vision that I have of the game. We have some exciting young players in our football club and it will be important for me to manage and make them play at the level I know they can do, which will help us play some good football.”

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Meanwhile, Shaun Derry will support Vieira this season after the club announced on Friday the ex-midfielder would step up from his role as U23 manager to become first-team coach at Selhurst Park.

Paddy McCarthy, another former player, will also be promoted from U18 boss to fill the void left by Derry.

It has been a busy week in SE25, with American businessman John Textor confirmed as a new member of the board on Wednesday after making a “substantial minority investment” that has already gone towards the club’s academy redevelopment and helped with the £50m outlay on transfers.

Vieira still wants signings “up front and in the midfield” but confessed Palace would not move away from their usual stance.

The 45-year-old insisted: “I think it is really good news for the football club but the way Palace have been working the last couple of years, they have always been responsible with the way they manage the football club and nothing will change. Obviously, we will try to improve the squad but nothing will be crazy.”

The making of Patrick Vieira, the coach

By Adam Bate

This summer marks a decade since Patrick Vieira’s retirement as a player. The final 18 months of that career were spent at Manchester City just as the club were taking their final steps towards becoming true Premier League heavyweights. Vieira had a role to play.

“By that time, he was not somebody who could get around the pitch,” Simon Wilson tells Sky Sports. “He was not somebody who could have a massive influence on the way that we played. But he was a locker room influence at that time. It was his leadership and presence.”

Wilson was City’s strategy and performance manager at the time and offers rare insight into the thinking that persuaded the club not only to bring Vieira to Manchester but also to keep him there beyond his playing career. His contract was extended on lucrative terms.

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