BY ANDREW MCSTEEN
Barely 450 days after coming in as Crystal Palace manager, Oliver Glasner led them to their first FA Cup and first-ever major silverware with an FA Cup final win over Manchester City at Wembley on Saturday.
And the Austrian has revealed that he knew he had something special with his team shortly after taking over in February 2024.
“It really started last year after we had a barbecue on a sunny day,” explained Glasner to the South London Press.
“My office is just upstairs [above it] and two hours after the barbecue, I was in my office, but there were still six, seven or eight players sitting on the table – talking, laughing and having fun together.
“I went to my staff and said: ‘Hey, it’s all good’. We didn’t tell them (the players): ‘You have to sit there’. They liked to be there, they liked to talk together, to each other and from that moment I could see we are on the right pathway and we will go in the right direction.”
After taking up the reins earlier than expected due to previous manager Roy Hodgson’s health concerns, Glasner went on to win seven of his 13 games until the end of last season.
But this season, a slow start saw a misfiring side fail to record a win in their first eight Premier League games with some doubting the former Eintracht Frankfurt boss.
Fast-forward to now and the team have won that silverware and a point picked up against either Wolves tonight at Selhurst Park, or at Liverpool on Sunday will confirm their record points total in the Premier League era.
And this is all down to the right atmosphere among his squad and coaching staff, according to the 50-year-old.
“From day number one we want to create an environment and have this right balance between really working hard and demanding a lot from each other, but to also enjoy the time together. So that we can laugh in the canteen and can laugh on the pitch – having this balance where everybody likes to come,” explained Glasner.
“This is fundamental, that we can get the best out of every single person, not just from the players, but from everyone in the staff. You can’t tell somebody ‘you have to like to be here’.
“I’m always watching, things outside the pitch or off the pitch [and asking myself] ‘are we on the right path’? You can see this. If I feel it’s going into the wrong direction, then I try to intervene as good as possible but I didn’t have to do it quite often because we have good guys, great characters, great guys here.
“It’s what I tell my kids; if you try to find the job you like to do, you love to do, then you can do it in the best way,” he added. “If you don’t like it, for example, if I have to sing karaoke, maybe if I have to, I do it. I wouldn’t be great, so I can’t win the Eurovision Song Contest, but that’s because I don’t like it, and I can’t do it. I’m really terrible and awful.
“It’s the opposite if you like something you do, and enjoy doing it, because then it’s possible to reach your personal ceiling,” said the manager, who won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022. “And this is a thing what we want from every single person. I don’t like this phrase ‘work/life balance’. It’s either work or life. Work is a huge part of our life, and if you don’t like to work, you don’t live a good life.
“This is what we try to create and, therefore, you need good people you need good characters. This is what we have here, this is what I found from day number one in this club and that’s how we are enjoying the time together.
“That’s why we are successful.”
PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD
Related stories