Dinner, wine and respect – Palace boss Vieira glowing in praise for former Eagles chief Hodgson

BY ANDREW MCSTEEN

Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira has praised Roy Hodgson ahead of his predecessor returning to Selhurst Park for the first time since leaving the club in May 2021.

And it will certainly be a week to remember for Hodgson, who picked up his CBE from Buckingham Palace on Wednesday, but who will see his Watford side relegated from the Premier League if they do not beat the Eagles or if Leeds or Burnley do not lose their games.

For Palace, the season has been one to remember, with a FA Cup semi-final at Wembley and the club still on track for their best-ever Premier League finish and points total.

Vieira was quick to praise the Croydon-born Hodgson for his input at the start of his reign.

“We spoke together before [I took the job] and we spoke when I was in the job,” said Vieira to the South London Press about if he had reached out to the former England manager before taking the role.

“We knew each other when he was in Italy and he’s always somebody that I loved and who I always respect for what he’s been doing in the game. It was everything; the insight about the club, we had a really lovely dinner.”

So who paid?

“For the respect, I had to pay of course,” joked Vieira, before expanding on how the 74-year-old helped him.

 “He really gave me time about inside the group of players and that was something really special because I don’t think everybody does that. He had that kind of patience to spend time with me and to answer the questions that I had for him.”

After dinner comes wine and with Hodgson inviting managers for a glass of vino in the managers room at Selhurst Park post-match when he was boss, will Vieira reciprocate?

“We’re definitely going to have a glass of wine after the game, yes,” said Vieira. “That’s for sure.”

Vieira inherited one of the oldest squads in the Premier League under Hodgson but Palace’s investment in the summer transfer market converted it to one of the youngest.

This has led to a healthy competition for first team places in SE25, something which Vieira admits was not a luxury Hodgson had but is welcome as the club looks to end the season on a high.

“What you try to do as a manager is create an element where there’s a competitiveness between players to improve the quality of the squad and players to feel like they have to perform to play, but the group of players that I have today is different from what Roy had at the time,” he said.

“It’s a younger group [now], so that allowed me to do some things different that he wasn’t allowed or couldn’t do with the generation and the group of players he had and that’s why you cannot compare the two groups.”