Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira caught up with his former teammate and ex-Eagle Ian Wright before the south Londoners’ FA Cup win over Millwall last weekend.
Vieira became a teammate of Wright’s in August 1996 when he put pen to paper with Arsenal, and the pair played together for the following two years. A month after Vieira moved to north London, Arsène Wenger took over the reins.
In a conversation for ITV, Vieira used Wenger’s arrival to explain his approach to joining Palace.
“I knew it would be challenging,” he said, “but at the same time I remember the time that Arsène arrived at Arsenal and the culture - you can’t change it, because you have to accept the football club and the history of this football club.
“We came here and we adapt ourselves to the football club. We don't want to change the heart of this football club because this club exists before and it will exist after us, so we adapted ourselves to the football club.
“It does take time. This is a new direction that the football club wanted to go. This is the direction that the Chairman wanted to take this football club; I arrived at the right time to make those changes. It was a new chapter of this football club: people, players, were out of contract, so that was the right time to make those changes.”
Looking more widely at his first few months, Vieira could only speak positively of his start to life at Palace, with Wright asking how he’s settled in.
“I’m feeling good,” the French manager replied. “I’m feeling really happy because I'm in a really good place. I'm really surrounded by good people. There's a really positive vibe around this football club and that allows me to express myself as a manager and I really enjoy what I'm doing every day.”
Finally, Wright asked Vieira to explain his approach to the 21/22 FA Cup. With Palace overcoming Millwall 2-1 in the third round and now drawing Hartlepool at home for the fourth, supporters are in good spirits about the tournament. Vieira said he understands the desire and demands, but that Palace have work to do yet:
“I fully understand, talking with the Palace fans and talking about the people who are around the players or working in the football club. There is this kind of expectation of these football clubs to win silverware.
“It's about what can we do to give ourselves the chance to win something. [But] where we are now and winning the FA Cup or challenging teams in top 10, we still have a long way to go.”