Oliver Glasner lifted the Conference League trophy in Wroclaw on Wednesday night, drenched in beer and embraced by players who had just become the first Crystal Palace squad in the club’s 120-year history to win a second major piece of silverware in a single calendar year. The 2-0 victory over Fiorentina, sealed by goals from Eberechi Eze and Daniel Munoz, capped a 12-month run that began with an FA Cup final triumph over Manchester City last May and ended, as Glasner had quietly briefed senior players a fortnight earlier, with his own departure from Selhurst Park.
The Austrian’s exit, confirmed by chairman Steve Parish in the bowels of the Stadion Wroclaw less than an hour after the final whistle, closes a chapter that nobody at Palace could have plausibly forecast when Glasner replaced Roy Hodgson in February 2024. A club that had finished 15th, 12th and 11th in the three seasons before his arrival now leaves the campaign with two trophies, a top-eight Premier League finish, and a Europa League place secured by virtue of the Conference League win.
From relegation fight to back-to-back finals
Glasner inherited a Palace side six points above the relegation zone with 13 games to play. He won seven of them, including a 4-0 dismantling of Manchester United and a 5-2 demolition of Aston Villa, and built the spine — Marc Guehi, Adam Wharton, Eze, Jean-Philippe Mateta — that would carry the club through the next two seasons.
The FA Cup run in 2025 was the breakthrough. Palace beat Aston Villa in the semi-final and then Pep Guardiola’s City 1-0 at Wembley, Mateta’s header sufficient to deliver the trophy that had eluded the club in 1990 and 2016. The Conference League campaign that followed was treated by some as a consolation for missing out on the Champions League places, but Glasner approached it with the seriousness of a man who had won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022. Palace dropped just four points across the league phase, eliminated Lazio in the quarter-finals and beat Real Betis 3-1 on aggregate in the last four.
Wednesday’s final was, by Glasner’s own admission afterwards, “the most controlled performance we have produced in Europe”. Fiorentina, beaten finalists in 2023 and 2024, had no shots on target until the 71st minute.
The U-turns and the tension
The 12-month arc was not seamless. In August, Glasner publicly questioned the club’s transfer strategy after Michael Olise was sold to Bayern Munich for £50m and a replacement winger failed to arrive before deadline day. He told reporters Palace had “missed the train” and was understood to have considered his position in the days that followed. Parish flew to Vienna to meet him.
There was a second flashpoint in February, when Guehi’s contract negotiations stalled and Glasner intervened directly, telling the board that selling the captain in the summer window would “break the dressing room”. A compromise was reached: Guehi will stay until 2027 on improved terms, with a release clause that activates only for Champions League clubs.
Glasner also reversed his own stance on Jean-Philippe Mateta’s role. Initially deployed as a pressing focal point with limited goal expectation, the Frenchman ended the season with 22 goals in all competitions after Glasner switched to a 3-4-2-1 that placed him as the sole striker. Mateta scored in both finals.
What Palace lose, and what comes next
Glasner leaves with a 58% win rate across 87 games — the best of any Palace manager in the Premier League era. He also leaves a squad with resale value approaching £400m and a recruitment department, rebuilt around sporting director Dougie Freedman, that has identified targets for the Europa League campaign before a successor has been named.
Parish confirmed the search will be “thorough and not rushed”. Sporting CP’s Ruben Amorim, sacked by Manchester United in March, is understood to be of interest, as is Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola. Whoever arrives inherits a fixture list that includes a Uefa Super Cup play-off — Palace will face the Europa League winners in August for a route into the main draw — and a Premier League opener at Anfield.
Glasner himself is expected to take a sabbatical before returning to management in Germany, with Bayer Leverkusen and RB Leipzig both monitoring his situation. He told Austrian broadcaster ORF on the flight home: “I did what I came to do. The next person should not be compared to me. They should be allowed to build something different.”
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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