Roy Hodgson is in talks to make a return to Crystal Palace after the sacking of Patrick Vieira. Hodgson, 75, left Palace in the summer of 2021 after four years in charge and is now the clear front-runner to succeed Vieira, who was fired on Friday morning after only 18 months in charge. Palace has met with a number of prospects, including Adi Hutter, who was most recently the head coach of Borussia Monchengladbach in Germany. When he left Palace 18 months ago, Hodgson appeared to be on his way out, but he accepted a firefighting mission at Watford last year, unsuccessfully attempting to steer the Hornets away from relegation. Palace has previously revealed that Paddy McCarthy, the Eagles’ U21s head coach, will take command of the team’s next game at Arsenal on Sunday, assisted by Darren Powell and goalkeeping coach Dean Kiely.
“Football is a peculiar game in that things may quickly go wrong. When you feel like you can’t get out of a rut, you have to modify something,” Steve Parish said about the return of Roy Hodgson as Crystal Palace manager. “Maybe things have changed [for the better], but I couldn’t be sure, so I made the decision I did, and we’ll move on from here. Everyone adored Patrick, and he never lost the players’ trust. They were still looking for him, but nothing was occurring. We’re just hoping for some new motivation and a few new ideas now.”
“We might be able to surprise the opposition by doing something unusual because we have good players and a decent group. They followed Patrick and will now follow Paddy [McCarthy] and Darren [Powell] in doing their best for the football club,” he added. “The atmosphere is always upbeat, and everyone feels we can win games. Everyone is still upbeat about Sunday’s game versus Arsenal. We’re not thinking beyond Sunday. We’re not interviewing managers while we’re still in place because that would be insulting. On Sunday, we want to give Paddy and Darren a clear run at it. We have our own list and such, but our main concentration is on facing Arsenal.”
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