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If Liverpool had serious doubts, Arne Slot had to go now. Different people in the same roles here have made that mistake before, backing Brendan Rodgers in 2015 only to see things fall apart even more. A new manager deserves a preseason and this summer is going to be busy. What point backing a guy you aren’t sure you want?

More pertinently, Slot had seemingly become a manager many Liverpool players didn’t want either. The defining moment of his season wasn’t the team and Slot being booed, or any milepost during the lamentable title defence, but Mo Salah’s parting shot.

The talk of “heavy metal” football was a call-to-arms not about the results – although they were indeed poor – but the style, a clear nod to Slot’s predecessor and a demand for significant change. Implicitly it read like a message to Liverpool’s hierarchy and it was liked by Florian Wirtz, Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, Hugo Ekitike, Andy Robertson and Jeremie Frimpong.

Those doubts were entirely valid. Although there will be censure towards the players and their performance, Liverpool became more muddled as Slot’s tenure went on, not less. For most of this season, they fell into an aesthetically displeasing sludge: made individual mistakes in defence, pedestrian in possession, failing to create enough chances and missing many of the ones they did create.

Yes, Liverpool qualified for the Champions League. Some will say that should be enough to merit extended faith. But even that was rather by technicality than proven aptitude, with the extra place needed and the joint-lowest points total in Premier League history required.

That speaks to the other justification for this move: this is hardly a rushed judgement, although it may feel like it in the immediate aftermath. After Liverpool had won their first five league matches of the season, the serious concerns first appeared in September: 1-2 at Palace, 1-2 at Chelsea, 1-2 against Manchester United and 2-3 at Brentford.

The raw numbers never improved enough. From the fifth game of the season onwards, Slot’s team earned a point more than Fulham and six more than Nottingham Forest and Leeds. They earned fewer than Brentford and 17 fewer than Aston Villa. It is that last figure that is most damaging, given the spend last summer.

The away leg at Paris Saint-Germain felt like a desperate low. Slot picked an entirely new formation and failed to have a single shot on target as Liverpool were entirely outclassed in every area of the pitch, subsequently losing the home leg by the same scoreline. Suddenly they looked like Champions League also-rans, and they cannot afford that to become the norm again.

Were this likely to be a quiet summer at Anfield, Slot could potentially ride out the storm as the continuity candidate to fit the mood. That’s the opposite of their reality. The best attacker in the club’s modern history is leaving. A starting central defender is leaving.

This season has caused significant damage to remaining key players and almost all of last summer’s transfer business was unsuccessful. How can you allow the same guy to play an integral role in more revolution when supporters and players have seemingly made up their mind and you’re not fully convinced either?

This is a ruthless decision, eventually. Slot won a league title a year ago, toppling Pep Guardiola in his debut campaign through perceptive tactical control and relentless consistency. He suffered the desperately tragic loss of a senior player and has been unfortunate with injury issues suffered by the two forwards that arrived last summer. As the club posted on X: “Arne helped us deliver our 20th title and we’ll always be thankful”.

But there was far more evidence that Liverpool were in danger of drifting further than there was to suggest Slot was likely to reinvent himself and the mood this summer. The defending looked broken. The balance looked broken. Morale in the dressing room looked broken and the spirit of supporters was quickly breaking too.

A sacking need not be a damnation of an entire reputation, but Slot was given eight months to offer proof that he could build a successful squad as successfully as he inherited one. The only obvious development was his best attacker becoming mutinous and other players deciding that they needed to leave. That’s no case for keeping your job.

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BUDAPEST — In the run-up to the Champions League final you will hear a lot about how Luis Enrique transformed Paris Saint-Germain from a gaggle of Galacticos to the best team in Europe.

Mikel Arteta can make a similar claim. Perhaps not aesthetically, but the Arsenal squad he took over – Nicolas Pepe, Shkodran Mustafi, David Luiz, Matteo Guendouzi –are unrecognisable from the current group.

It does not put them anywhere close to favourites in Budapest- but it is unwise to write Arsenal off, even if Enrique has won 11 of the 12 finals he has contested. You could fairly rudimentarily divide their season into three parts: pre-Christmas, post-New Year and post-defeat to Manchester City on 19 April. Since then Arteta has locked into an approach that won them the Premier League – and which has him “fully convinced” they can push PSG all the way.

Arteta’s four headaches

Who partners Rice?

Arsenal cannot be entirely sure what form Enrique’s midfield will take. It could contain Lucas Beraldo, or he could be deployed at right-back or centre-back. If Martin Zubimendi were to partner Declan Rice, it would be harder to pinpoint where their own creativity was going to come from. Instead Arteta feels likelier to stick with Myles Lewis-Skelly, who has excelled since his first start as a midfielder in the 3-0 win over Fulham earlier this month.

How to stop Kvaratskhelia

Ben White is a loss but his replacement could be better-suited 1v1 against Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who already has 10 goals and six assists in this season’s competition. The question is whether Jurrien Timber starts having been a doubt for the final. Arteta could opt for Cristhian Mosquera instead – but Timber is a risk worth taking if he is fit, despite not featuring since 14 March.

Gyokeres vs Havertz

In the biggest moments, Arteta has at times used Kai Havertz as the focal point of the front three, but there is an obvious argument for why Viktor Gyokeres could be best utilised against PSG. Gabriel Martinelli is the only Arsenal player with more goals in Europe this season and all of the Brazilian’s came in the league phase.

One of Arsenal’s most effective strategies against Atletico Madrid was to use David Raya to get the ball up quickly to Gyokeres, who ran 6.5 miles in the semi-final second leg. Marquinhos is also liable to follow the striker when he roams into the wide areas and drops into a deeper role, creating more space to be exploited by Martin Odegaard.

The left

At left-back there is the more adventurous option in Riccardo Calafiori over Piero Hincapie, combining with either Eberechi Eze or Leandro Trossard. Eze impressed sufficiently during Odegaard’s recent absence that Arteta chose to keep deploying them both, but Trossard is a more likely starter, with Eze on for the final half-hour. The five teams who beat PSG in Ligue 1 did so because for the most part, they were able to contain Ousmane Dembele – not easy to do with PSG’s notorious pressing.

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RED BULL ARENA – “We are the boys who will win your little game,” a Selhurst Park tifo read at the start of Crystal Palace’s Uefa Conference League journey.

They did, indeed, live up to the billing, beating Rayo Vallecano 1-0 in Wednesday’s final.

Despite feeling aggrieved after their demotion from the Europa League for failing to comply with multi-club ownership regulations, Palace embraced the competition from the start – after all, it was still a maiden European tour.

It did not work out too badly in the end; now they are European champions and have back-to-back seasons of continental football.

In retrospect, the exclusion has worked in their favour. Entering the Europa League in their first-ever European season may well have been a step too far – especially with the toll the Conference League has taken on the squad – but the third-tier competition has given them exquisite grounding and experience of European football, which will elevate their chances in the Europa League next season.

There was beautiful irony to Palace lifting a European honour at the home of RB Leipzig, a club genuinely engrossed in a multi-club model – unlike Palace. Despite winning the “little game”, there was no love lost for Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin, whom supporters pelted with jeers during the trophy presentation.

Procuring a maiden continental honour has finally allowed the Eagles to take up their rightful place in the Europa League next season after Jean-Philippe Mateta struck into a gaping net.

It had to be Mateta, who lives every moment of a game, even after he was substituted in Leipzig – the Frenchman was bouncing up and down on the bench trying to coach his team over the line.

It was not long ago that Mateta was vilified by Palace fans when he tried to force a move to AC Milan in January. Palace can thank their lucky stars the move fell through, with Mateta, who may still depart in the summer, scoring the most crucial goal of their campaign.

Winning a European trophy is a remarkable achievement for Palace, and they should take time to bask in the glory. However, when attention turns to next season under new management – with Conference League success marking Oliver Glasner’s final game at the club – their triumph could prove a gamechanger.

Crystal Palace are the 2026 Conference League winners

What an achievement pic.twitter.com/xjMDrfrQbT

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 27, 2026

The dividends stretch beyond another trophy in the cabinet. The £21.5m prize for winning the competition will help boost the transfer kitty for the new manager, especially with financial regulations becoming even more stringent from next season. Another European campaign will also increase revenue streams, both commercially and through prize money.

Most importantly, the pull of the Europa League should not be underestimated. Another season in Europe will allow Palace to attract a higher calibre of players and coaches, with Thursday night football once again on offer at Selhurst Park.

Andoni Iraola is Palace’s dream candidate to replace Glasner, and their efforts to persuade him to join have been admirable. With Bournemouth securing Europa League football, a move to Palace may initially have appeared a side-step.

But Palace now offer European football of their own, alongside the prestige of having won a European trophy and two domestic honours. The prospect becomes even more attractive given Iraola’s interest in London.

No matter where Palace go from here, the kudos belongs to chairman Steve Parish and outgoing manager Glasner.

Glasner for masterminding the greatest spell in Palace history, always finding a way to win big games. The unity he has developed in the Palace squad means they enter every game as a collective with an unconquerable mindset.

Meanwhile, Parish, who has had a tense relationship with Glasner at times, could have sacked the Austrian when he publicly disrespected the club in January. However, he held his nerve as he knew Glasner gave Palace the best chance of winning the Conference League. He may look back on that decision in years to come as the pivotal moment that led Palace to the title.

There was a touching moment between the pair during the celebrations when they both lifted the trophy together in front of the Palace supporters. One last trophy to signal the end of their union and further cement their legacies as the greatest chairman and manager, respectively, in Palace’s history.

Read more

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Bobby Manzi: ‘I felt depressed’: Crystal Palace’s immortals and the price of glory

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This summer will host the biggest international football tournament in the game’s history, the first one to span an entire continent and the first time that a World Cup host will be at war with a competing nation. Basically: strap in.

The sheer size of the tournament changes the game for coverage. In 2022, 64 matches were played to decide the world champion. In 2026, 72 matches will be played to decide which 16 countries won’t make the last-32 round and then we have the knockouts. It’s a football all-you-can-eat buffet.

The geopolitical ripples are also extraordinary, and not just because of the US-Iran war. In Qatar, the most common criticism on my reportage was “Errr have you seen America?” And yes, I had seen America. There are issues surrounding the treatment of minorities, heat, freedom of the press, surveillance and so much more.

To which we must add the questions surrounding Fifa’s governance of the game, greed, the premiership of Gianni Infantino and the economics of a tournament that has priced out so many international travellers. This is a non-normal World Cup for myriad reasons and thus demands non-normal coverage. And so…

What is the project?

• A 7,200-mile road trip – no internal flights, all car – over 49 days from the westernmost point of the contiguous United States (Washington coast) to the easternmost point (Maine coast), watching matches live in nine different host stadiums and ending at the final.

What will I be doing?

• A series of detailed, on-the-ground features on the issues that matter, from ICE agents to public transport chaos to price gouging on tickets to the extreme heat.
• By travelling across the country, speaking to people in red and blue states, on the west coast and east coast, in host cities and in smalltown USA where the World Cup feels a long way away, I think we’re offering sharper, deeper and different coverage.
• Wider-angle match pieces, from Iranian supporters in San Francisco to watching Messi for perhaps the final time to LGBTQ+ visibility to the final itself.
• Regular newsletters sent straight to you, with progress updates, talking points and news from our reporters inside England’s training camp.
• Videos that I desperately hope will sit in the sweet spot between Alan Partridge’s From The Oasthouse and Richard Keys’ 2014 World Cup diaries. I highly recommend both.

How do I follow the journey?

• Sign up for the newsletter for free here, from which you will get all the updates.
• Sign up for a subscription to The i Paper for all of my work, all of our World Cup coverage and everything else the paper produces for a trial period of just £1 for the first three months.
• Follow me on Instagram for the videos as I slowly descend into highway madness.

Where will I be going?

The broad details, which look easier written down:

• 7,200+ miles
• 60+ driving hours
• 34 motels (obviously I’m going to end up rating these)
• 24 states. Deep breath: Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine

Who will be with me?

Just me, a hire car that I’m praying to every God holds up and a fistful of dreams. I will see familiar faces at matches and my goodness I will need them.

I’ll also meet lots of lovely locals, motel receptionists and supporters of various countries, who will all stop me going mad. This is the best bit of the project to me, telling stories with the help of everybody I meet along the way.

Other than that it’s me and the road. I’m thinking of Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley and Paul Theroux’s Dark Star Safari. But then neither of them had Spotify or Elis James and John Robins podcasts, so maybe better?

How am I going to stay sane?

Come back to me on that in late June. And then early July. And then late July. It’s the drive between Los Angeles and Houston that’s living in my head, because it’s the same distance as London to Morocco and I’ve got to do it in five days alongside work. Don’t ever feel sympathy for me – I love this stuff.

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At some clubs Eddie Howe would not have got another chance.

Whatever mitigation there is for Newcastle United’s disappointing season, that is the stark truth. 

“Unacceptable” is how one source described it and that is not an unfair description of a campaign where a black and white storm descended on St James’ Park.

Problems that had been brewing for a while – Howe’s recruitment and retention preferences colliding with financial restrictions to produce a squad that was both stale in some parts and unsettled by new arrivals with the wrong profile in others – combined with new issues like fan discontent and a resurgent rival in Sunderland to leave a sense that the project has stalled.

Behind the scenes they would dispute that. Sporting director Ross Wilson’s impact has won almost universal praise from those who have witnessed his work and he has worked hard at knocking down some of the silos that created the problems in the first place.

Chief executive David Hopkinson has injected new urgency into off the field issues. His willingness to embrace ambition has been matched by relentlessness in the boardroom. From plenty of conversations throughout the season it does feel as if Newcastle have spent the campaign laying foundations which will make them better in the long-term

Sources suggest that they will be on the front foot this summer, hoping to do business in and out fairly quickly, while there will be no repeat of last year’s Alexander Isak transfer saga.

Why Newcastle are backing Eddie Howe

One thing that can be cleared up: Howe has support from Hopkinson and Wilson, with the former confirming to The i Paper that they have a “strong” plan heading into a pivotal close season.

12th is miles off where Newcastle – whose minimum target this year was qualifying for Europe – need to be and Howe accepts that.

But the belief is that there has been mitigation: a hectic fixture list, the botched sale of Isak and the lack of an executive team to support him until the autumn.

A rigorous, partly data-led analysis of the campaign has been under way for weeks and Howe has been particularly hard on himself at times this season. Yet he retains the conviction and enthusiasm for the job, while admitting mistakes have been made.

Howe’s track record in seasons where Newcastle have not had European football is also very good.

“We’re in a situation in the summer of 2026 that is stronger than the summer of 2025 for a couple of reasons,” Hopkinson tells The i Paper.

“Eddie has got support from me and from Ross that is stronger than he had last summer with the departure of Paul Mitchell and Darren, who was sick. Darren is an outstanding executive and was a terrific CEO and I consider himself a personal friend but he was necessarily distracted last summer with his health issues.

“We have got a strong bench right now and a strong plan. We’ve been planning for multiple strategies since January and we now know which plan we’re executing and we’re executing it with the full conviction of the manager, CEO and sporting director all aligned.”

‘A natural point for reinvention’

Newcastle have had to scrap Plan A and B – qualifying for the Champions League or the two other European competitions respectively – in favour of Plan C. It comes with significant consequences – it is almost certain that Anthony Gordon will not be the only player Howe would like to keep who leaves – but also opportunity.

A “natural point for reinvention” is how one insider describes it and the club are understood to be hopeful of making quick signings. Sources in France suggest Reims goalkeeper Ewen Jaouen is close to agreeing a deal while Newcastle have held talks with Monaco over a move for Senegal midfielder Lamine Camara. Barcelona have joined the race to sign Gordon, while Liverpool and Bayern Munich are also among his suitors.

Last summer the mistake Newcastle made was that they allowed the Isak debacle to drag on for far too long. Even up until a few days before a deal was agreed with Liverpool some at the top were insisting he would not be sold. It made planning virtually impossible and while £125m represented a good fee, the confusion over their stance left those on the ground unsure of the size of their budget or what they needed.

Those lessons have been absorbed and are why things will move quicker with Gordon and anyone else whose valuation is met. “This club has to stop being scared of selling players,” one influential voice says. Part of that is about showing that they can replace them with players whose ceilings are potentially higher.

“Clear-eyed” is how one source describes their view of a critical summer. After the first major setback of the PIF era they have to get it right.

Howe’s biggest challenge at St James’ Park

Senior figures are backing Howe – in effect – to come up with Newcastle version 2.0. In the modern game, where success only insulates you for so long, not many managers get that opportunity.

It is a big call and a reflection of both his superb work at St James’ Park until now and the high esteem PIF holds him in. But credit has been eroded and the dynamic next season will be different.

Newcastle are probably right to hold their nerve on the condition that Howe is ready to shake himself and the club out of the comfort zone. A tactical tweak in the run-in was positive. Nick Woltemade’s recall and Will Osula’s transformation are positives.

Now there is a need to dispense with sentiment in their squad-building. They need two new goalkeepers and the sort of logic that brought Aaron Ramsdale to St James’ Park must be a thing of the past. Embracing risk and potential has to be the new blueprint.

Read more

• Mark Douglas: Sunderland’s historic brilliance has put Newcastle to shame
• Mark Douglas: Newcastle agree fine with Uefa – here’s why it will be less than Aston Villa’s £9.5m

Fans will get on board with that. Expectations will be high – internally and in the stands – but there will be an understanding if the club are bolder and supporters can see a long-term strategy at play.

What has disappointed this season is the tendency to play it safe when pressure is on. In truth, last summer’s signings – Anthony Elanga at £55m, Yoane Wissa at the same price – were the result of that sort of thinking. Yet the sure things were nothing of the sort.

It is not that long ago that Newcastle were seen as a real threat to the established elite. This season no-one seemed especially worried about them. Reversing that perception is Howe’s biggest challenge.

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In 2008, a peak UK television audience of 14.6 million watched Manchester United beat Chelsea on penalties in Moscow. The Champions League final was broadcast on ITV, who would hold the rights for another eight years until non-terrestrial broadcasters took the competition away.

In 2024 and 2025, TNT Sport’s viewing figures for the Champions League finals were roughly 2.5 million. Even accounting for the significant decline when English teams are not present, European football’s showpiece event has dropped off the radar of the masses. You can tell as much during its vast group stage.

But at least then everybody had the chance. For the first time since the Champions League rebrand in 1992, this year’s Champions League final will not be available to watch for free in the UK. Just like that, another drop of fan power evaporated in favour of an attempted money grab.

Uefa dictate that some attempt must be made to provide free-to-air coverage and there is reported annoyance within the governing body that TNT Sports have not acquiesced to this requirement, as they have previously. We are entering the final year of the TNT Sports contract before Paramount takes over, which may be relevant. Who cares who you annoy now.

The journey of the Champions League final as a national TV event is a wonderful paradigm for the many roadblocks placed between live football and the free-to-air audience. For 15 years it was there, on one of the four or five terrestrial channels. There is a reason that you still remember Lars Ricken’s lob in 1997 and Jose Mourinho’s Porto winning in 2004: it was very easy to watch.

Between 2015 and 2023, BT Sport charged for all Champions League content but continued to make the final available to watch for free without a subscription or sign-up; you just watched on YouTube. That was a barrier to older viewers who used television as their sole method of absorbing visual content.

In 2023, 2024 and 2025, after BT Sport was bought by Warner Bros Discovery and rebranded as TNT Sports, the final remained free but viewers needed to sign up for a Discovery+ account to get access and either watch via laptop, phone/tablet or through a smart TV. Again, not an awful faff but another layer of administration to get your free product.

And so to 2026, where supporters must either sign up for a TNT Sports subscription (for roughly £31.99 a month in most places) or access via HBO Max on a streaming platform, where the cheapest subscription is £4.99 a month. Subscribers to Sky Sports (although not through NOW packages or Virgin Media) can get access to HBO Max for free through an app on their Sky box, although they will have to link the two accounts. It really is that simple.

On TNT Sports’ part, the takeover by Warner Bros Discovery has increased staff levels and presumably costs. They did also announce the details of the package – the £4.99 covers all three European finals and a month of HBO Max – on 15 May.

But that hasn’t appeased the people that matter. Last Saturday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer sent a letter to TNT Sports urging them to reconsider the lack of free coverage. It has not yet achieved any official response or reaction (make your own jokes) but Starmer is right. If Uefa want it to be free and you understand that demand when you sign your contract, it’s a bit rum to just bin that off to try to flog some subscriptions to another brand of your parent company.

More broadly, do you ever get the feeling that we’re having the piss taken out of us here, some elaborate prank at our expense? To watch matches that men’s and women’s professional English clubs played in 2025-26, you needed five separate subscriptions: Sky Sports, TNT Sports, Disney+, DAZN and Amazon Prime. Cut to scene in Impractical Jokers: “Now tell them they will need Paramount from 2027.”

Read more

• Daniel Storey: Tottenham should sack the two men responsible for this mess
• Daniel Storey: Celebration police are the most insufferable people in English football

And then, when one of these broadcasters spots an opportunity to try to claw a few extra quid because English clubs have got into European finals that they have previously shown for free, add that to the take-the-piss pile. Then they tut and shake their heads when members of the public seek “alternative” methods.

The great irony here is that the entire approach loses all goodwill and damages PR for the sake of very little gain. It creates further anger among supporters about what they understandably see as working-class fans being priced out of stadiums and then priced out of watching from home too. It treats their loyalty not as something to be celebrated but exploited. And they remember.

And it likely stops thousands of young viewers from watching an English team in a European Cup final. Then they scratch their chins as to why kids move away from the game. Good process, guys. Hope the £4.99s were worth it.

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Oliver Glasner will have his last dance as Crystal Palace manager against Rayo Vallecano on Wednesday in the Uefa Conference League Final, hoping to end his unforgettable spell with one more trophy.

The Austrian coach, who joined Palace fighting relegation in February 2024, has transformed the football club. At surface level, they have lifted silverware twice. Which, in itself, is enough to cement his status as the greatest manager in Palace history. But it is the cultural change he has embedded that sets him apart from his predecessors.

Glasner’s first objective as Palace boss was to remove the inferiority complex, emphasising to his squad that they do not have a ceiling — no dreams are unrealistic when putting in the hard yards. He successfully developed an atmosphere where no task was insurmountable.

His remarkably high standards were a breath of fresh air in south London. For the first time, Palace started to believe they could climb above their perceived place in the pecking order. That formidable mentality trickled into the fanbase, and there was a time — during a 19-game unbeaten run that spanned two seasons and included their FA Cup and FA Community Shield wins — when Palace believed they were invincible.

A philosophy built on belief, confidence and momentum has changed the lives of everyone at Palace. It is no wonder that Glasner’s vehement battering of the club in January — 24 hours after announcing he would depart Palace at the end of the season — drew resentment from supporters, who labelled him as “finished”. Glasner was their messiah, and they were wounded not only by his words but by his decision to call time on what had been the best period of their lives.

‘A winner’

“It was a big shock to everyone,” said Brennan Johnson, who signed for Palace while they were in a state of chaos.

“It was something that we didn’t really expect to happen, especially for me so early on into my time here. But he made his decision. We all respect it. He’s done unbelievable things at this club and I feel like that was all it was. After this massive game on Wednesday, we’re going to wish him all the best, of course.”

In the end, reaching the Conference League final aided Glasner’s redemption. The most poignant moment of solace came at Selhurst Park on Sunday, when all four stands sang his name in unison for the first time in five months while sending the team off for the biggest match in the club’s history. Protests when drawing away at Zrinjski Mostar in February feel like a lifetime ago.

“One of the things over the last couple of years is that he’s got massive trust and respect for us as a group of players, likewise we have for him as a manager,” Will Hughes said. “We knew he was still going to give it his all for the remaining months of his contract, like he would do if he was there for the next five years. That’s a great thing about him.

“As players, we’ve bought into that and you can see the standards haven’t dropped throughout. What Oliver has done for us has been fantastic. He’s helped us get our first silverware as a club and for many of us as individuals. We’re all forever grateful for him. Hopefully, we can give him a proper send-off. That’s part of the motivation after what he’s done for us as players and as a club. To send him off with a trophy would be a nice thing.”

Glasner’s contagious drive for success was perhaps best encapsulated by Jean-Philippe Mateta: “He’s a winner. He just wants to win. He will do everything to win.”

Yet, with Glasner’s departure a mere subplot to Palace’s first European final, the players offered their gratitude and farewell speeches before flying to Germany. Palace captain Dean Henderson hopes to write Glasner his very own Hollywood ending to a monumental two years, while revealing that the group got together to record a valedictory message to their boss.

‘What he’s done is remarkable’

“It would be a great way to finish the movie off for Glasner,” said Henderson.

“Everyone wants that happy ending and everyone’s working towards that. It’d be unbelievable for him, wouldn’t it? Obviously, the best manager this club has ever had and to finish on such a high would be sensational. He’ll be a huge miss. I think he knows that from Tuesday, when the players did a send-off video to him and spoke from the heart.”

“FA Cup last year, Community Shield, getting into Conference League and hopefully winning that would be an unbelievable send-off,” Johnson added. “I feel like what he’s done for this club is already remarkable, so he deserves all the plaudits that he gets. But now, because we have the opportunity we do, we have to give everything we have.”

Read more

• Bobby Manzi: ‘I felt depressed’: Crystal Palace’s immortals and the price of glory
• Bobby Manzi: The reasons behind Adam Wharton’s controversial World Cup snub

Having worked with Glasner at VfL Wolfsburg before reuniting with him at Palace in August 2024, Maxence Lacroix has witnessed his manager’s development first-hand — from his time in Germany to winning the Uefa Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt, and now to within 90 minutes of another trophy in red and blue. The French defender believes Glasner will be the difference-maker against Rayo Vallecano.

“I think he understood the games more,” said Lacroix. “He’s won more trophies now, so he has more experience — especially in Europe. This is what we need for the final. It’s about the experience. He has already won the Europa League. He knows how stressful it is and how you have to prepare for this type of occasion. He gave us everything that we need to win.”

Leipzig is where Glasner’s farewell tour will culminate. The Palace boss has vowed to stay fully committed to the club until after what he hopes will be celebrations, stretching into the early hours of Thursday if Palace secure a first European trophy. A fitting finale to the most prosperous era the club has known.

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