GEORGE Evans has the highest admiration for Patrick Vieira – but will be putting what the legendary midfielder taught him into practice to try to help Millwall beat Crystal Palace this weekend.
Eagles boss Vieira was Evans’ manager with Manchester City’s Elite Development Squad and the pair won the Premier League International Cup in 2014-15.
It was Vieira’s passion and aggression that most struck Evans when he was learning his trade under the former Arsenal captain and Premier League, FA Cup and World Cup winner.
Vieira, 45, left City to coach New York City and Nice, before taking over from Roy Hodgson at Palace last summer.
He has impressed in the job as he re-shapes a younger squad. Palace are currently 11th in the Premier League.
“It’s a great draw, fantastic,” Evans said. “It’s two big teams going at it, we’re at home in front of our crowd who will back us to beat anyone on our day.
“Hopefully the fans can come out in full force and get right behind us. It’s going to be a great atmosphere.
“Patrick Vieira was my reserve team coach at City. Just the way he was with people, he would join in training as well and you could see the passion for football that he had, the aggression. He was very 100 per cent, all or nothing.
“It was brilliant in terms of if you were on that training pitch every day you gave it 100 per cent otherwise you might as well not bother. That’s the sort of thing that I like to take pride in as well.
“He’s been to a few different places, went to New York, but I think he’s in a great spot now. He’s really deserved the opportunity he got at Crystal Palace.”
Vieira wasn’t Evans’ only mentor at City, as James Milner and Frank Lampard were also influences.
“There were quite a few,” Evans said. “Milner was a big one for me. Frank Lampard came which was massive for me.
“When Frank came into City he helped me to develop so quickly. I was at a stage where I was fortunate enough to be around the first team every day.
“Frank came in and changed my whole outlook on football, the way he worked, the way he trained, the way he never settled. He’s such a professional and it was something I relished as soon as I saw him.
“He helped me a lot and I’d say Frank was probably the biggest influence for me when I was at City.
“I couldn’t thank him enough for that. Frank had won everything there is to win in football and ultimately with young lads coming through he doesn’t really need to help me, he’s done his bit, he’s at the top of his level. He had a great career.
“So to go and make the effort and take the time to speak to me, that was massive for me as a young lad. To have someone like that, you take every little bit of information in and go to work as hard as possible to try to transfer it to the pitch.
“When you’ve got someone like that giving you advice what more can you ask for.”
Image: Millwall FC