Former Arsenal star and Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira is closing in on a return to management to work under Chelsea owner Todd Boehly.
The Frenchman has been out of work since being sacked by Crystal Palace in March following a rotten run of form. He was replaced by Roy Hodgson at Selhurst Park, the veteran boss leading the Eagles to Premier League safety and now securing an even longer stay with his boyhood club.
Vieira has in the meantime been on the lookout for a new job ever since. He was initially linked with taking the reins at recently-relegated Leeds United.
However, he could be in line for a return to France. According to L’Equipe, Vieira has emerged as the favourite to be appointed as Strasbourg boss.
The Ligue 1 side - who were recently at the heart of a takeover by Chelsea’s parent company BlueCo - are on the hunt for a new manager after parting company with Frederic Antonetti. It is said that they are ‘likely’ to appoint Vieira as they aim to improve on a 15th-placed finish last term.
Former Toulouse boss Philippe Montanier and ex-Union Saint-Gilloise manager Karel Geraerts were originally in the running but have since pulled out of the race. Should a deal get over the line, it would see Vieira make his first return to France since his spell with Nice.
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He oversaw 89 games at the Allianz Riviera, leading the club to seventh in his only full season before his second was curtailed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Vieira was eventually sacked in December 2020.
A move to Strasbourg would see him work under current Chelsea boss Boehly. He previously admitted whilst with Crystal Palace that the American’s huge spending habits at Stamford Bridge made things more difficult for teams in the Premier League to compete.
He said: “Of course, it is not going to make it easy because when the Premier League team goes abroad to try to bring that player, when it is a Premier League team it becomes really difficult because the other [selling] team will think we have the same spending as the other team. Of course, it makes it more difficult.
“But what is important is that we know who we are as a football club and what we can achieve in the market. Chelsea are at a different level and we have to accept it.
“But we can be really smart and we can work in a different way to find the players to fit the way we want to play. When you’re looking at the players we bring in our football club with Marc Guéhi, Michael Olise, Cheick Doucouré, we can still do the same. But, of course, we are not going to be in the same market [as Chelsea].”
