Oliver Glasner is a candidate to become the Man Utd head coach this summer but alarm bells are ringing after a difficult weekend for the Crystal Palace boss.
Oliver Glasner
Oliver Glasner launched a stunning attack on his Crystal Palace bosses as he prepares to leave Selhurst Park(Image: )
View 3 Images
Having just got rid of one combustible head coach who rarely sticks to the script in public, Manchester United won't be rushing to appoint another. That's why Oliver Glasner's remarkable rant against his Crystal Palace bosses after defeat at Sunderland on Saturday was such a risk.
Glasner's candidancy for the Old Trafford hotseat has dimmed a little in recent weeks, a downturn in results at Selhurst Park not helping him at a time when he needs his stock to be climbing. So getting the flamethrower out at the Stadium of Light on Saturday was an interesting strategy.
Palace had just made it 10 games without a win when Glasner took studious aim at those above him for doing a deal with Manchester City for captain Marc Guehi on the eve of the game. Glasner had confirmed on Friday that he was leaving Selhurst Park at the end of the season, and much like Ruben Amorim did in his final weekend at Old Trafford, the Austrian decided one public meltdown wasn't quite enough.
"The players gave everything they could. We made no substitutions - look at the bench, there are just kids there," he said. "We feel like we're being abandoned completely. Selling our captain one day before a game - there is no understanding for this.
"We are preparing and then yesterday [Friday], I get told that our captain will be sold, but why not next week? At least he can play this game and then next week, other players are coming back. It makes me really upset.
"If your heart gets ripped out twice a year, with [Eberechi] Eze one day before a game in the summer and your captain one day before a game - I've just got no understanding.
"I've been in football for 30 years and never experienced this, not once. Now it happens twice in six or seven months. That's just where we are now."
This is a remarkable attack on the club employing him and the comparisons with Amorim's stunning broadside at United executives at Leeds earlier this month are obvious. Amorim's position became untenable after his remarks, but Palace seem determined to limp on with the manager who only eight months ago won them their first major trophy.
Ruben Amorim speaking at a Manchester United press conference
Ruben Amorim could be a loose cannon in press conferences at Manchester United(Image: Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images)
View 3 Images
In truth, this has probably been coming all season. Glasner threatened to quit at the end of the summer transfer window if Guehi was sold to Liverpool. He won the battle that day, but he was never going to win the war. Palace's business model doesn't allow players of Guehi's quality to leave for free, so City's £20million offer was £20million they couldn't afford to turn down.
None of this should really come as a surprise. Palace chairman Steve Parish has made the business plan clear often enough. Glasner referenced Eberechi Eze as well, but that was another transfer that looked a certainty all summer and is just what clubs like Palace have to do.
It is depressing for Glasner, depressing for Palace, and depressing for most football fans that any club with the cheek to lay down a challenge to the elite soon finds the vultures circling overhead.
This is what happens when a hungry and ambitious manager ends up taking charge at one of the Premier League's upwardly mobile, middle-class clubs. Andoni Iraola probably deserves more credit than he is getting for biting his tongue at Bournemouth when his players are sold from under him as well.
Glasner and Iraola are two of the standout candidates for the Old Trafford vacancy, but are now balancing disappointing runs of form at the worst possible time, and both have lost their best player during January. You can understand the frustration.
Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi
Bournemouth and Crystal Palace have sold Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi in January(Image: )
View 3 Images
Granted, Glasner does have history here. He left Eintracht Frankfurt after disagreements with sporting director Markus Krosche over the strength of the squad, and at Wolfsburg, he clashed with Jorg Schmadtke over what he felt were broken promises to improve the squad.
The common theme here is a manager pushing for more at clubs whose natural habitat is the middle ground. Is that enough to cast the 51-year-old as a loose cannon, or does a CV including a Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt and an FA Cup with Crystal Palace suggest he has earned a crack at the highest level?
His ambitions would be easier to meet at an elite club, while he's hardly alone in being a manager or a head coach who sometimes disagrees with those above him. The challenge for Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox at United would be to manage that kind of personality rather than fall into the trap of a compliant yes-man.
That's not to say Glasner is the outstanding candidate here. His CV does make him deserving of a crack at a bigger job, but there are concerns. Top of the list is that his best results have come with a back three, a system United will want to steer clear of. Recent results at Palace have also cost the club and Glasner momentum.
Those are reasons for Berrada and Wilcox to think twice about approaching a manager who is on the market this summer and has Premier League experience. Worrying about what a boss with ambitions beyond the likes of Crystal Palace and Eintracht Frankfurt might say in public is not.