The last twelve months have been quite a journey, and while it has not all been plain sailing, we sit here with three lots of silverware safely stored in the trophy cabinet.
There are a multitude of emotions going through the minds of everyone associated with Crystal Palace Football Club, as we bid a very fond farewell to Oliver Glasner.
The Austrian arrived at the club with very little known about him, although came with a little expectation following successful stints in Germany with both Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt.
A small matter of a couple of years later, we are celebrating the best manager ever in the history of the club in terms of success and impact.
While it is sad that Glasner is opting for a new challenge, wherever that may be, we have to be happy that it happened. He has given us the greatest journey we have ever experienced, turning us all from dreamers to believers.
The FA Cup triumph last season was incredible, something that the club and fans have truly wanted to experience for such a long time. That success was followed up with victory over Liverpool in the annual curtain raiser at Wembley by claiming the Community Shield after a penalty shoot-out.
Little did we know what the following campaign would give us, particularly after the angst and upset at being demoted to the Conference League, and the legal battle that followed last summer.
In what has been a ridiculously long season which saw Palace play 60 games in all competitions, the European journey against a multitude of opponents, some of which found to be challenging including a two-legged qualifying round play-off after the league phase.
Palace certainly did not make things easy for themselves, but no game in football is easy no matter what fans may thing. However, we knew that the further the Eagles go in the competition, they would be more suited facing the better teams and how they would play, and that proved to be very much the case. The likes of Fredrikstad, Larnaca, and KuPS all proved difficult opponents, but playing the more tactically expansive teams like Fiorentina and Shakthar were more suited to the way Glasner had Palace playing.
It certainly was not easy, as form in the Premier League fell away and the hugely disappointing loss to non-league Macclesfield in the defence of the FA Cup was off all off the back of Oliver Glasner making it public that he would be leaving the club in the summer after some friction behind the scenes.
While the form in the league never really recovered, Glasner ensured enough was done to avoid being sucked into trouble allowing the focus to turn solely to the Conference League with a real opportunity of silverware.
This was a European debut that took the Eagles take to Poland, France, Ireland, Bosnia, Cyprus, Italy, and Germany.
It is already a week since that wonderful evening in Leipzig, and it is still hard to believe or truly put into words what the club achieved. It will take time to settle, and to allow us to really understand what a golden moment it truly was. Did we every think that Palace would ever lift a European trophy? I don’t think the most fervent fans among us ever thought that we would achieve that.
Oliver Glasner has left his mark in South London, he now considers himself a South Londoner (read Glasner’s goodbye message). While the Premier League season was patchy to say the least, the joy that was witnessed and experienced in Leipzig was magical.
The Austrian came to the club and gave us the FA Cup, the Community Sheild, and a European Trophy all in the space of twelve months which is quite simply outstanding.
Once again, we are looking ahead to a new chapter in the history of the club with a little trepidation, but we will always have Wembley (twice), and Leipzig where we saw Crystal Palace become winners under the guidance of Oliver Glasner.
Thank you, Oliver. You changed our lives and gave us so many moments that will stay with us all for a lifetime. Most of all, you changed our mindset from being dreamers to believeing.
