Roy Hodgson’s 61-year affiliation with Crystal Palace is set to come to an acrimonious end amid reports he will be sacked as manager in the coming days.
Hodgson first joined the club in 1963 as an academy player, but never featured for the first team, before returning for his first managerial stint in 2017. The 76-year-old initially left in 2021 to retire, but returned to the Selhurt Park dugout in 2023.
But with the club in 15th, having won just three of their past 19 matches, fans have turned on Hodgson and the Palace board, leaving change feeling like an inevitability.
Hodgson’s replacement is reportedly expected to be former VfL Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt boss Oliver Glasner. The Austrian won the 2021-22 Europa League with Frankfurt, having taken Wolfsburg into the Champions League the season before.
Palace have reportedly contacted Glasner to discuss his availability with a view to appointing him over the coming weeks.
So who is Glasner and what could Palace fans expect if he were to replace Hodgson?
Who is Oliver Glasner?
A dogged defender who played his entire 19-year career with now-Austrian second division side SV Ried, Glasner retired just shy of his 37th birthday having developed a brain haemorrhage from an on-field clash of heads.
Having completed an MBA while playing, he was initially hired as an executive management assistant to Ried’s honorary president Peter Vogl, who was also chief executive of Red Bull Salzburg. Through this connection, Glasner convinced Ralf Rangnick to hire him as assistant manager at RB Salzburg, where he stayed for two years before returning to Ried as head coach in May 2014.
One solid if unspectacular year with Ried in the Austrian Bundesliga was enough to convince ambitious second-tier side LASK to hire Glasner as both manager and sporting director in 2015.
Winning promotion to the top flight in his second season with LASK, Glasner took the club into the Europa League in 2018-19, before earning a 2019-20 Champions League spot having finished second, only behind Salzburg.
This then convinced Wolfsburg to take a chance on the Austrian. In two seasons there, Glasner finished seventh then fourth, helping the club to earn a Champions League spot for the first time since 2015-16.
A dispute over signings then led Glasner to join Frankfurt, who had finished one place below Wolfsburg the previous season. The first months after his move were disastrous, failing to win any of his first eight matches and being knocked out of the cup by a third-tier side.
Yet Frankfurt rapidly improved, beating Bayern Munich at the Allianz for the first time in 21 years, and ending the first half of the season in sixth. While domestic form was varied for the rest of 2021-22, die Adler went on to win the Europa League, beating Rangers in the final on penalties.
Frankfurt were unbeaten throughout their Europa League run, including being heavily praised by Xavi after beating his Barcelona side in the quarter-finals.
“They play on the counter-attack and counter-press in a way I’ve only seen from a few teams in my career,” the former World Cup winner said.
Glasner then took Frankfurt to the Champions League last 16 and DFB Pokal final in 2022-23, alongside finishing seventh in the Bundesliga. As at Wolfsburg, he then left at the end of that season amid a dispute over transfer spending.
How would Glasner fit in at Crystal Palace?
To get the question asked about every foreign manager linked with the Premier League out of the way early – Glasner is fluent in English.
His football has recently been compared to Ange Postecoglou’s direct attacking style at Spurs, but in reality it’s closer to Thomas Frank’s counter-attacking philosophy at Brentford.
Glasner’s teams are extremely well-organised, press effectively and move forward quickly. As a manager, he’s known for being relatively hands-off with players, believing they will rise to whatever responsibility he gives them and allowing them to learn organically.
His tactical style would be more exciting to watch and free-flowing than Hodgson’s current Palace side, although it would be unfair to suggest he’s quite cut from the risk-loving Postecoglou cloth.
But between improving Palace’s watchability and bringing fresh ambition to Selhurst Park, Glasner would likely be a popular early appointment. He is also known for getting the best from attacking players.
Wout Weghorst shone under him at Wolfsburg, scoring 45 goals in 84 games, before he transformed the likes of Daichi Kamada, Randal Kolo Muani and Filip Kostic at Frankfurt.
Yet there are issues with Glasner’s potential arrival. At Wolfsburg, he publicly fell out with now-Liverpool sporting director Jorg Schmadtke, criticising the club’s transfer policy before leaving for Frankfurt at the end of the 2020-21 season, despite taking Wolfsburg into the Champions League. Schmadtke was also rumoured to have problems with the insularity of Glasner’s coaching group and the influence he wanted to exert on the club.
The Austrian then had similar problems at Frankfurt, leaving after two successful seasons amid reports of a strained relationship with sporting director Markus Kroesche, based on a lack of squad depth and access to signings he wanted.
At Palace, a club known for its relative frugality and current preference for stability over upwards mobility, these issues could arise once more in Glasner’s dealings with Dougie Freedman and Steve Parish.
Every year from 2017 to 2023, Glasner’s teams qualified for European football in some form. Meanwhile, Palace have finished between 10th and 15th in every Premier League season since their promotion in 2013-14.
Glasner appears to prioritise winning silverware over league position, something likely to resonate with the club’s fans more than the board. At Frankfurt, his cup runs masked disappointing league form in both seasons, guiding a team which finished fifth before he arrived to 11th and then seventh.
He is also known for slow starts after taking over clubs, something which could also be an issue at Palace given their current proximity to the relegation zone.
Which Palace players could shine under Glasner?
Glasner traditionally plays a 3-4-2-1, depending on wing-backs pushing high up the pitch to provide both defensive and attacking support.
This is not something Palace currently have in their squad. On the left, the closest equivalent would be Jeffrey Schlupp, who has been used as a left-winger or a central midfielder this season, but has also historically been used as a left-back.
But Glasner’s wing-backs are often depended upon to produce high attacking output, which Schlupp never has before. He currently has just 21 goals in 259 Premier League games, while Kostic, Frankfurt’s left wing-back in their Europa League-winning season, scored seven times and assisted 15 goals in his one campaign under Glasner.
On the right, January signing Daniel Munoz may provide the answer, although he has rarely been deployed that high up the pitch before.
Munoz had scored seven goals in 29 games for Genk this season before joining Palace, having scored eight goals and grabbed seven assists in 39 matches last season.
But the attacking midfield spots Jesper Lindstrom and Kamada thrived in at Frankfurt may be perfect for Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze, although both are currently injured.
These roles would give Palace’s two best players great creative freedom, supported in the long term by Adam Wharton and Cheick Doucoure, if the club can hold on to their prodigious quartet.
The three-at-the-back system Glasner prioritises would also be a new challenge for the likes of Marc Guehi, Joachim Andersen and Chris Richards, with summer reinforcement at centre-back a necessity as a result.
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