Crystal Palace: Vieira seen calling out Benteke as footage emerges out of training ground

Patrick Vieira has been caught calling out Crystal Palace striker Christian Benteke as footage emerges out of the club’s training ground.

Crystal Palace, while are in a very similar position to when Roy Hodgson left them in terms of league place, have experienced an FA Cup semi-final and seen the average age of their squad drop from 28.8 to 27 this season under Vieira.

This is largely down to the likes of Marc Guehi, Michael Olise and Odsonne Edouard all arriving in the summer, while a lot of older players have departed as free agents under Vieira, but someone that’s stuck around is Benteke and is now the fifth-oldest in the squad to have started at least seven league games.

The Belgian has only started one out of the last 19 league matches, showing that Vieira perhaps doesn’t fancy the striker anymore and many people may believe that if they see this latest video to emerge out of the club’s training ground where Vieira encourages youngsters of the ‘Down’s Syndrome Eagles’ to ‘tell him to run a bit more quicker’.

TIF Thoughts on Benteke…

While this comment may have been made in jest, Vieira’s facial expressions wouldn’t suggest so as he doesn’t crack much of a smile and with Benteke set to become a free agent next summer, he may well be heading out the exit door this summer as the last chance the Eagles could recoup a transfer fee for the striker.

Benteke has been a decent servant for the Eagles netting 37 goals in 175 appearances, but with Palace starting to recruit younger players and building a side for the future, the Belgian may well be better suited to looking for a new club in the summer and cutting his ties with Palace.

In other news: ‘Major questions’ over Leeds ace who Marsch had ‘private talks’ with – journalist