It was the day Crystal Palace supporters had dreaded but feared was inevitable. Oliver Glasner, having confirmed that the captain Marc Guéhi’s move to Manchester City is poised to go ahead, had another bombshell prepared for his press conference to preview Saturday’s trip to Sunderland.
Nearly eight months to the day since the Austrian led the club to their first major trophy by beating Manchester City in the FA Cup final, his announcement that he will leave Selhurst Park at the end of the season came as no surprise. It rounds off one of the worst weeks in the club’s history after the humiliating defeat by non-league Macclesfield that will be for ever an unwanted postscript to their victory.
The writing has been on the wall since Glasner revealed at the end of August deep frustration at Palace’s failure to reinvest the record £67.5m fee received from Arsenal for Eberechi Eze – the man who scored the winning goal against City – as they embarked on their debut campaign in Europe. Two days after their triumph at Wembley, and with the club yet to become embroiled in the dispute with Uefa over breaking its regulations on multi-club ownership that led to their demotion from the Europa League to the Conference League, the manager urged Palace not to become “one-hit wonders” and insisted he was “100% here”.
But Glasner, who clashed with the directors at Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt over transfers, has always worn his heart on his sleeve and could not hold back with his criticism of Palace’s lack of activity despite the last-minute decision not to sell Guéhi to Liverpool in the final hours of the summer window.
A key figure at Palace had predicted a few weeks earlier that Guéhi’s future would be closely connected to the manager’s given that their contracts expired this summer. Glasner is understood to have been instrumental in the decision to keep Guéhi for the first half of the season when the defender appeared poised to move to Anfield. But with City desperate for defensive reinforcements after injuries to Josko Gvardiol and Rúben Dias, the chair, Steve Parish, accepted a fee of £20m – a £15m loss compared with what Liverpool had been prepared to pay five months ago.
With Guéhi on his way, Glasner could not keep his secret any longer. He revealed he had informed Parish in October of his desire to pursue a new challenge, when Palace had just set a club record of 19 matches unbeaten stretching back to the previous season. Glasner, who has expressed his ambition to manage a club in the Champions League again after reaching the last 16 with Eintracht in 2023, had been in favour of coming clean last month to avoid speculation that his departure was down to lack of investment in the squad.
“I spoke with Steve, I wanted to maybe announce it before the transfer window because of these rumours about my decision being influenced, but we decided it wasn’t the best moment,” he said.
Whether announcing he is leaving after a run of nine games without a win that has led to Palace plummeting down the table proves to be a better idea remains to be seen. Glasner said he hoped it could inspire a “turnaround” in fortune but replacing a player of Guéhi’s quality will be no easy task in a squad lacking confidence and resources.
There are also doubts over the futures of several of the FA Cup winning side. The France striker Jean-Philippe Mateta has 18 months left on his contract and is wanted by Juventus, and Adam Wharton, Daniel Muñoz and Daichi Kamada are also coveted by bigger clubs. The Japan midfielder, who – like Muñoz – has been badly missed in recent weeks owing to injury, played for Glasner at Eintracht and is out of contract in the summer.
The most important decision Palace must take is appointing their next manager. They have looked at Getafe’s José Bordalás and Iñigo Pérez of Rayo Vallecano as potential successors, although Parish is understood to have pushed for Ipswich’s Kieran McKenna before appointing Glasner to replace Roy Hodgson nearly two years ago and may try again. Brendan Rodgers could also be a contender despite taking over at the Saudi Arabian side Al-Qadsiah last month.
None are likely to be as demanding as Glasner, although his track record in south London has confirmed he gets results. Palace became distracted by their battle with Uefa, and the arrival of the American billionaire Woody Johnson to replace John Textor as the biggest shareholder proved too late to supply the firepower needed to sustain a European campaign and satisfy their ambitious manager, whose exit was bizarrely not mentioned on Palace’s website on Friday.
All roads could lead to Manchester United for Glasner, even if his most recent trip up the M6 was one he will never be able to forget for all the wrong reasons. But after making history at Palace, he will relish the opportunity to test himself at Old Trafford or elsewhere.
