20 March 2023 , 02:00
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They can't seriously be ready to reheat the Roy Hodgson years at the Palace, can they?
The word is that it remains a goer following the panic that preceded Patrick Vieira’s sacking last Friday. And yet the side left behind by the Arsenal legend didn’t play that badly here. Wilfried Zaha hit the post with the scores goalless, Jeffrey Schlupp converted for 3-1 and Michael Olise should have turned in Zaha’s ball across the box for 3-2.
Who knows what would have happened then? Yes, Palace chairman Steve Parish and the club’s American owners have to think of the money. The treasure trove that comes from simply being in the Premier League.
No, of course Paddy McCarthy and Darryl Powell are not the answer. Hodgson, however, turns 76 in August. That he is even in the conversation as a potential solution is symptomatic of where the Eagles find themselves; too scared to press ahead with a way forward, too unwilling to cut its umbilical cord to the past.
Hodgson and his body of work retains the respect and admiration of the wider football fraternity. But if Palace do hire him until the end of the season - and he keeps them up - the project managers subsequently sounded out will always have the spectre of the ex-England boss hanging over them when results start going south.
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Patrick Vieira was sacked by Crystal Palace last Friday (Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)
Roy Hodgson has been out of work since he was dismissed by Watford last year (Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)Yes, at first glance, no win this calendar year for the Eagles looked bad for Vieira. Then you look at Palace’s opponents during that run: Spurs, Chelsea, Manchester United twice, Newcastle, Europa League-chasing Brighton and Brentford, Liverpool, resurgent Aston Villa, Manchester City and now this.
Among their remaining fixtures are the eight teams below them. At least a couple of those would have been the ones in which to judge Vieira - especially as he picked up 16 points out of 24 against them during the first half of the season. Sacking him for Hodgson suggests the club really are going backwards.