Crystal Palace have entered the closing days of manager Oliver Glasner’s time at the club, with the Austrian set to depart at the end of the season and a Conference League final in Leipzig left as his final hurdle, according to ESPN.
The club’s first European campaign has taken Palace across the continent while they coped with the summer loss of Eberechi Eze and the midseason departure of captain Marc Guéhi, sources say. Palace reached Wednesday’s final after navigating an arduous route that has brought rare continental attention to the South London club, ESPN reports.
The season has included a difficult spell on the terraces: after Glasner announced his summer exit in the New Year, supporters at times refused to sing his name, according to ESPN. The Premier League also denied a Palace request to move their domestic match against Arsenal, ESPN notes.
Palace’s rise to this point sits against a history of precarious times. On the final day of the 2009-10 season, a 2-2 draw at Sheffield Wednesday preserved the club’s Championship status after Palace entered administration that January. A month after that season ended, a consortium including Steve Parish completed a rescue takeover, and ESPN highlights that Nathaniel Clyne — an unused substitute that day — could now play a role in Palace’s European run.
Glasner has already delivered rare silverware to Palace, overseeing an FA Cup triumph in May followed by Community Shield success in August. Reflecting on that run, Ollie Thomas of TalkCPFC told ESPN: “I think the best way to put it is that we’ve had a lifetime’s worth of memories in the space of the year… The FA Cup will always be the best one we’ve ever had.”
