Glasner Sack Shock Splits Palace Fans

From dugout to boardroom…. when the final whistle blew on Liverpool’s strange win, the burden of performance for Palace switched instantly from Oliver Glasner to Steve Parish. Until the Forest game, it remains precariously so.

International breaks are always a tricky two weeks for managers close to the top of bookies’ lists for the chop. But, honestly, why would anyone think Glasner’s job is in any ‘real’ peril?

Seven matches, three points, no wins. That’s certainly a horrid start to the season. And a Glasner team playing Royball for long periods is not a pretty sight.

So the reality is that Parish now has a huge decision looming, because relegation is the nightmare that is impossible for his “General Partners” on the board to ignore. Or even contemplate for very long.

Inevitably, then, in the coming weeks, Steve Parrish’s phone line will be red hot to at least two of the other three General Partners who – judging by their record in the NFL, NBA and NHL – aren’t scared to terminate.

Meanwhile, John Textor will keep a close eye on Palace’s actions, because Glasner was his preferred choice for Lyon before he came to Palace. Glasner is (or was) Textor’s man.

Palace fans seem to be split

Those who want Glasner out might want to ask themselves some questions. Did they already forget:

1. Glasner’s much-mentioned April/May results?

2. The board selling four experienced players and banking, not re-investing, a fat transfer profit?

3. Star players underperforming and unsettled by rumours they’re leaving for top clubs?

4. A growing injury list with three more internationals lost to injury in 45 minutes against Liverpool?

5. New players in important positions needing to bed in super-fast?

The de Boer scenario of 2017 was very different. He had zero Palace track record, no history with the supporters and no previous bond with the players.

The concept that Glasner does not yet know the best 2024/25 Palace team may be valid. Key partnerships at the back and in central midfield are still far from settled.

But please don’t complain about half-time substitutions! It’s positive that Glasner is pro-active after years of watching his predecessors sit on their hands and persist with game plans that
obviously weren’t working.

Anyway, did you truly expect this different team to take off like a rocket? Sure, my “win the league” bet has proved to be the joke it always was, but in much less than a year, Glasner has become very important to Palace. This is not a relationship we should easily drop – nor is replacement a straightforward matter.

The Palace fans who are fed up with Glasner, do they really want Roy back? Or do they want David Moyes? He’s available! No, let’s be serious.

Is Glasner a slow start or a hard learn?

In the last three league seasons where he had a pre-season to prepare his players, Oliver Glasner has a consistent record of starting slowly followed by improving results. 

And then, of course, Glasner’s arrival at Palace in February started with six games producing 0.83 points per game, followed by 2.70 points per game for the rest of the season.

The Austrian might be a slow starter, but it’s also very possible that the players might find him to be a hard learn. His demands on players are not just like anyone else’s.

If intensity made a buzzing sound, Oliver Glasner would be the queen bee of Crystal Palace

None of us would ever sleep. He’d have us all thinking solutions not problems, 24/7.

Since Sam Allardyce took the reins in 2016, it’s felt like our whole identity was focused solely on holding on to a spot in the Premier League.

Two attempts to bring worldwide personalities to Palace, but since Clattenburg’s Cup Final, frankly, we’ve mostly lacked our lifeblood, our sense of adventure. Allardyce, Hodgson and eventually Vieira all had the team playing just to produce 40 points.

While we now wait patiently for the performance and the result to arrive on the same day, a streak of Glasner can be detected through the club, based on his influence and his personality rather than his power. This Glasner effect is running through everything important that’s happened at the club already this season, contributing to a new feeling for Palace.

One example: a particular test of Glasner will be how he copes with the fact his squad depth is already being challenged. He’s been open about giving kids a chance.

“If you’re 20 and you’re not able to play 15 to 20 minutes in the Premier League”, he says, “it’s very tough to become a Premier League player in future.” I’m looking forward to the sheer power of youth crashing through into the first team squad with Glasner’s blessing.

It’ll also add some spice to my mate Pudding Pete’s game of Spoof. Pete invites his mates every game to name a total produced by adding up the numbers on the backs of Palace players who finish the game.

The closest number to the correct answer wins, and the high numbers worn by kids can easily turn a losing bet into a nice winner. If Glasner gives Asher Agbinone a 15-minute runout, the total can go through the roof. His number’s 64!

Meanwhile, Parish and the other General Partners are watching carefully.

Did Liverpool kick their way to the points against Palace?

Tell me. In your experience, if a game reaches half-time with 11 fouls committed by one team and zero fouls by the other, wouldn’t you say one team came to win by kicking their opponents off the park? That’s exactly what happened in the game against Liverpool.

Did you see even one journalist draw attention to this extraordinary statistic? At every shade of the spectrum, from The Sun to The Observer to London News Online to the BBC to The Times, not one ….. yet I can’t remember a half-time foul count quite like it. 0-11.

Certainly, Liverpool exerted massive control in that first half, but a key component in their pass and move ethic was fouling Palace. When will top journalists be honest and say so? Until that far-off day, sadly they just purr and stroke the ego of Slot and his players.

Yet another referee error also proved costly for Palace with failure to give a nailed-on penalty that would at least have changed the flow of the match. Referees and VARs who stand between us and the points we perhaps deserve have quickly become a repetitive theme this season.

As refs go, by the way, I don’t dislike Simon Hooper, but he didn’t have his best game at all. The eventual foul count was 15-7 to Liverpool but the yellow card count was 4-2 to Palace, with all 4
bookings coming in 5 mad minutes!! Liverpool did all the fouling, and Palace got all the bookings!