Oliver Glasner had ‘no desire’ to think about next move before Palace won final
By Rachel Steinberg, Press Association, Leipzig
Oliver Glasner insisted he had “no desire” to plot his next move until he ensured the Conference League trophy was on its way to south London with Crystal Palace.
In just under two-and-a-half years, the Austrian boss has led the Eagles to three pieces of silverware – the FA Cup, the Community Shield and now a trip to the Europa League with victory over Rayo Vallecano in Leipzig.
Many will now wonder where the 51-year-old will land next, after wrapping up his Palace tenure with Wednesday night’s final, but the man himself has more mundane immediate priorities, like boxing up the remnants of his life in London.
“I do not even want to think beyond the day after tomorrow,” said Glasner, after Jean-Philippe Mateta’s second-half opener proved to be enough in the 1-0 win.
“I have not allowed myself anything except focusing on the final. But I am also quite good at letting loose, and that is what I will do with the players, then we will fly back to London a little hungover.
“I will clear out my flat, go back to my family, and everything else will follow. I have cancelled everything until now. I had no desire and no energy to think about it, or to speak with anyone about another club or anything like that, because I felt obliged to be 100 per cent focused on the boys.
“They deserved 100 per cent Oliver Glasner. Everything else will come later. I think I’ve got to know football well enough to understand that everything I say today, I may say differently tomorrow.”
In his first press conference in February 2024, with Palace mired in a relegation battle, Glasner insisted: “I’m no magician, I am not David Copperfield.”
Yet, for the Palace fans who have been pinching themselves since the final whistle at the Red Bull Arena, there is still a sense of astonishment that the Eagles, under the leadership of one man, have managed to pull three trophies out of a hat in just over a year.
Glasner insisted: “I just guided this group of players and staff, and I supported them.
“This is my one hundred per cent conviction: I cannot do anything alone. I could be the best magician, but it would not work without the players.
“The players deserve all the credit, because they have to listen, they have to trust me and the staff, and of course they have to work very hard.”
A feeling of calm settled over the father-of-three when he heard the final whistle blow in Leipzig.
“There was also a little melancholy,” he added. “You think ‘now this is it’. I really had not thought beyond the final until kick-off today. And now it really is over. All of that came up in that moment.”
Captain Dean Henderson said: “This is the way the manager deserves to go. He’s been incredible. Every good movie has a happy ending, and we got that.”
