“Anything is possible,” said Patrick Vieira after Crystal Palace thrashed Everton 4-0 a year ago to book their place in the FA Cup semi-finals and stretch their unbeaten run to six matches. Two weeks later, he was being touted as one of the managers of the season after masterminding a 3-0 win at Selhurst Park against his former club Arsenal that lifted Palace to ninth and dented Mikel Arteta’s hopes of a top-four finish.
Twelve months on and with his Palace reign over after a disastrous start to 2023 that yielded no victories, Vieira must be wondering how it has come to this. The co-owner Steve Parish spent 24 hours making his mind up after defeat against bitter rivals Brighton on Wednesday left Palace in real danger of being sucked into the bottom three in their record 10th successive season in the Premier League, and concluded he had no option but to push the button on Friday morning, a little over 48 hours before Vieira was due to face the league leaders at the Emirates.
Vieira acknowledged this month that Parish’s experience in building a sustainable club “has to be listened to”. Relegation is not an option for Parish, who has seen the danger grow even though the team have occupied the same position as they finished last season – 12th – since losing to Tottenham at the start of January. Sunday will bring the 12th successive fixture Palace have played against clubs above them. They have scored only four goals and steadily allowed the chasing pack to reel them in.
Palace picked up home draws against Manchester United, Newcastle and Liverpool but the manner of performances persuaded Parish and his board it was time to act. Vieira’s side are ranked lowest in the division in terms of distance covered this season and have badly missed last season’s player of the year, Conor Gallagher, since his return to Chelsea at the end of his loan. Although Vieira insisted on Wednesday that he had “no worries about the relationship between the players and myself”, on the evidence of the past few weeks the 46-year-old who captained Arsenal to two Premier League titles and won the World Cup with France was failing to inspire them.
“It is important for me and everyone at the football club to trust the players we have,” he said after Palace’s last victory, against Bournemouth on New Year’s Eve. “Especially when you have a young group of players, and players who are new in the Premier League, there will be some ups and downs.”
The average age of Palace’s starting lineup has fallen slightly from 27.2 to 26.9 this season after the summer arrival of Cheick Doucouré for £20m, but the squad contains many of the stalwarts who served Vieira’s predecessor, Roy Hodgson, so well. Vieira is understood to have been frustrated by Parish’s unwillingness to reinforce his squad as much as he would have liked in January. Vieira targeted a right-back to replace the long-serving Joel Ward and Nathaniel Clyne and ended up with two midfielders: Naouirou Ahamada for £10m from Stuttgart and Albert Sambi Lokonga on loan from Arsenal.
Palace’s net spend of £82m over the past five years is the fifth-lowest in the Premier League – albeit almost double Brighton’s outlay – as Parish has prioritised £100m plans to redevelop Selhurst Park’s main stand to increase the capacity by 8,000 to more than 34,000. Planning permission has yet to be granted by the mayor of London despite approval from Croydon council last October. The £20m paid by John Textor to increase his stake in Palace to more than 40% when the American businessman completed his takeover of Lyon in December was directed towards that fund.
It is understood that Textor paid a further £30m this month in exchange for more Palace shares but remains frustrated at what he perceives as a lack of ambition in the transfer market. He fell out with Parish in January when his plans to switch his shares in Palace to his holding company Eagle Football Holdings were initially blocked by Parish.
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Vieira is understood to have been informed of his departure in an early call with Parish as he was driving to training and departs along with his assistants Osian Roberts, Kristian Wilson and Saïd Aïgoun. The youth-team coach Paddy McCarthy will take the reins on an interim basis for the Arsenal match, with Hodgson the bookmakers’ favourite to return to the role he left in May 2021. Sky reported on Friday night that talks had already begun with the former England manager. Parish is believed to have considered approaches for an up-and-coming manager such as Burnley’s Vincent Kompany or Michael Carrick of Middlesbrough, although he has conceded he would find it difficult to persuade either to leave their promotion-chasing sides. Ralph Hasenhüttl could come into the frame given his experience in fighting relegation with Southampton.
For Vieira, who was sacked by Nice in December 2020, after losing five successive matches, there can only be frustration that he was not shown more faith.