Journalist Dean Jones is ‘confident’ Patrick Vieira could be sacked as Crystal Palace manager if results don’t change over the next four fixtures.
The Lowdown: Palace now in a relegation battle
Despite a steady start to the season under Vieira, it appears the wheels have come off in recent times with the Eagles yet to win a game in 2023 – and the Frenchman is certainly coming under pressure.
It has been reported that Vieira’s position may well come under further scrutiny if he doesn’t start to pick up positive results, starting against Manchester City at Selhurst Park this weekend, as they could slip perilously close to the bottom three, with the Eagles just five points clear of the drop despite sitting in 12th at the time of writing.
Given the poor run of form, Jones believes he could be handed a few more games, mainly because of the horrendous run of fixtures coming Palace’s way – as they face Man City, Brighton and Arsenal in their next three games.
The Latest: Vieira under pressure at Palace
Jones claimed on the Chasing Green Arrows YouTube channel that the Leicester City clash in a few weeks’ time could be the pivotal point in Vieira’s tenure as Palace boss.
He said: “Actually, I wrote a story about this the other day for GiveMeSport talking about Vieira’s future, and any time I do a Crystal Palace [story] – I don’t do many Crystal Palace stories, it’s not a club I typically cover. So I was like, I’ve got to be a little bit careful how I write this one because Steve Parish might be onto me, here.
“I mean, the story’s 100% legit. I’m very confident that, to be honest, if he [Vieira] was to come through these three games and then lose the Leicester one, I think actually Vieira would probably be gone.”
The Verdict: Parish may lose patience with Vieira
Unlike in recent times, since Vieira took over at Crystal Palace, Parish and the rest of the club’s hierarchy have been very forthcoming in terms of transfer spending, with over £115m being splashed out under the Frenchman.
Vieira has spoken about how he’s always been under pressure since he sat in the hotseat at Selhurst Park, but given this atrocious run of form, he won’t have experienced anything like it since coming to England as a manager, although Jones does believe that not all hope is lost at Palace in terms of Vieira turning their fortunes around.
The French manager has had to cope without talisman Wilfried Zaha for a prolonged period of time this season, which will have been a struggle, however, to succeed in the long term, he needs to get used to life without the Ivorian as he’s set to leave as a free agent in the summer as it stands, and it doesn’t appear that any mitigating circumstances are likely to save his skin.