BY ANDREW MCSTEEN
Crystal Palace co-owner Steve Parish this week admitted he hopes manager Oliver Glasner will sign a contract extension.
The Eagles face Manchester City in the FA Cup final this afternoon.
The Austrian joined Palace in February 2024, signing a contract until the end the 2025-26 season – and with his side on the verge of a historic potential double of their first-ever major silverware and record Premier League points total, plenty of clubs have expressed their interest in the 50-year-old.
“Hopefully, Oliver will stay with us longer,” Parish told the ‘It’s Called Soccer!’ podcast. “If he can see progress at the football club, progress with the infrastructure – the stand that we’re trying to build – progress on the pitch, progress in recruitment, if he can see that progress now, there’s a possibility he will stay with us longer.
“What the ultra-long term will bring, I don’t know. He’s a very talented guy, and I’m sure there’ll be a lot of interest, but we would hope to be able to hold on for him for a while longer.”
In his pre-FA Cup final media conference, Glasner would not be drawn on his long-term future, preferring to keep the focus on the English showpiece event which could change the trajectory of everyone involved at the South London club.
“What I expect from the players, is the same I expect from myself – to not even think about my personal future,” he said. “Now is the wrong time to think about your personal future. I didn’t talk to any single player because it’s not the time to talk about it.
“If you start to talk about it then you get distracted, we can’t allow that we are distracted, because we need 100 per cent focus, 100 per cent energy, 100 per cent togetherness, to win this title, otherwise, it’s not possible,” said Glasner, who won the Austrian cup twice as a player.
“To be honest, I feel this. No player came to me and even wanted to speak about his personal future, and the same is for myself. I never talked about my personal future, because it’s not the right time now, so let’s play this game. Then we have two more games in the league, and then I switch off my phone.”
However long the club and Glasner decide to keep working, co-owner Parish admitted that succession planning is constantly under review at the club.
“You’re always looking around. Management is, in some regards, in the moment, who knows what is going to happen in a year’s time? Who are going to be the right managers on the right pathway in the right moment?” he explained to ‘It’s Called Soccer!’. “It’s such a difficult job, with so much jeopardy. There’s so much pressure, so much scrutiny, particularly in the Premier League, with the jeopardy and the glory that you can go for, but we’re keeping an eye on various different people.”
That succession planning was evident when Glasner was initially brought in last year, earlier than expected due to the health issues surrounding previous boss, Roy Hodgson, with Parish keen to explain the background of bringing in the current coach.
“We went [for him] at the right time, but we were surprised,” said Parish, about Glasner.
“After spending a lot of time with him, it was obvious how good he was. All the things that he’d achieved and the style of play that he had, we felt would suit us.
“We felt that we could adapt to that, it wasn’t a big jump from where we were to get to there, so we started recruiting for it in that January (transfer window), with Adam (Wharton) coming in and trying to get players that would suit Oliver, with a view to him coming in at the end of that season, but then things happened with Roy and his health so we did it earlier.
“I remember, at one point, Dougie (Freedman, former sporting director) saying to me that these clubs, big clubs, haven’t got a manager and that he didn’t understand why they were not taking Oliver, and that we needed to get it done.
“So, it did feel right, but these things are all easy to post-rationalise when they work out, it looks great now, and it felt right then, but you never really hire a manager you don’t think it’s going to work and they don’t always work out as well as this one has.”
PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD
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