This has the potential to truly blow up in Palace’s face. Crystal Palace have sacked their manager Patrick Vieira after a terrible run of form, even though the former Arsenal star was set to lead Palace against the league leading Gunners.
It’s not a real surprise that Vieira was sacked by Palace, but to do it at this point was a huge head turner for me. And especially so given Palace’s standings in the Premier League.
For those who aren’t the most ardent Crystal Palace followers (which is most of us), the London side is currently only 3 points above the drop zone despite their 12th place standing. Yeah, it’s crazy how a team that is currently 12th in the league and only two places behind a Top-10 finish can be so close the relegation zone in late March.
I’m not sure whether that’s more reflective of how competitive the Premier League has been this season or how wide the gap between 11th place Aston Villa (35 PTS) and up compared to Crystal Palace and everyone below them is.
I mean, when you see an 11th place team like Villa have star players (ex: Emi Martinez, Diego Carlos, Lucas Digne, Douglas Luiz, Emiliano Buendia, Jacob Ramsey, Leon Bailey, and Ollie Watkins), a manager with European and league title wins (Unai Emery), and an ownership group with hundreds of millions of pounds ready to be spent on new players and team facilities, I think it’s clear it’s the latter.
Aside from newly promoted Fulham and over-achieving Brentford, the rest of the Top-11 clubs in the Premier League either have pocketless owners (Man City, Newcastle, Chelsea), supreme brand recognition/history that generates hundreds of millions of pounds (Man United, Arsenal, Liverpool), or has wisely sold players/managers to facilitate record-breaking revenue streams and on-field performances (Brighton).
Even though I still believe the Premier League is the top domestic league in Europe, there’s undoubtedly a gulf in quality arising between the Top-9-11 clubs and the rest of the pack. Obviously, that’s still better than the likes of Ligue 1 and La Liga as those leagues only have 2-4 really competitive teams (if that many), but it’s the reason why Crystal Palace have just fired Patrick Vieira.
If Vieira and this Palace squad was imposed into Ligue 1 or La Liga, I’d guarantee they’d be finishing within the top half. Players like Wilfried Zaha, Marc Guéhi, Joachim Andersen, Michael Olise, Eberechi Eze, Cheick Doucouré, and Vicente Guaita would be playing for the very best in those respective leagues, rather than plying their trades at a club only 3 points away from safety.
That’s just how good and lucrative the Premier League is for players and clubs.
Though, to be fair to these players and Vieira, if Palace had a capable goal scorer who could produce 10-15 league goals a season, they’d be in a far more comfortable position. Strikers Jordan Ayew, Odsonne Édouard, Jean-Philippe Mateta have a combined total of 5 goals is clearly not good enough.
Nevertheless, the price of getting relegated into the Championship is just too high for the 20 best English Premier League clubs, which has caused Palace owner Steve Parish to make a rash move and fire the struggling Patrick Vieira.
Sure, overseeing a winless streak of 12 games was going to reflect very poorly on Vieira once the season ended (which is when I’d have sacked him if Palace didn’t improve), but to make a managerial change with just 12 games left is never a good idea. Just look at the teams that changed managers late into the season over the last 2 years.
In the 2020/21 season, Slavin Bilić was sacked in late December by West Brom in favor of Sam Allardyce (the club finished 19th), Chris Wilder was sacked in early March (March 12th to be exact) by Sheffield United in favor of Paul Heckingbottom (the club finished 20th), and Jose Mourinho was sacked in mid-April by Tottenham Hotspur in favor of Ryan Mason (the club finished 7th, lost League Cup Final).
In the 2021/22 season, Watford sacked two managers (Xisco Muñoz in October, Claudio Ranieri in January) but still were relegated (finished 19th) under Roy Hodgson (who was let go in the summer) and Sean Dyche was sacked in mid-April by Burnley in favor of Mike Jackson (the club finished 18th).
Truthfully, the only positive late managerial sacking I could find the last two seasons was Leed sacking Marcelo Bielsa in late February 2022 for Jesse March (Leeds stayed up that year in 17th place) and Chelsea sacking Frank Lampard in late January 2021 for Thomas Tuchel (Chelsea finished 4th that year, won 2021 Champions League as well). Yet, funnily enough, both of those managers were sacked less than two years after their hiring.
So, to wrap things up, I think this firing may have been justified at the year’s end, but highly questionable with less than a quarter of the season to go.
Crystal Palace have too many good players and quality facilities to get relegated from the Premier League this season, yet their owner may have just doomed them to that fate with this firing.
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