{"id":685642,"date":"2026-01-10T00:49:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T00:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/685642\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T00:49:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T00:49:26","slug":"smart-independent-and-in-demand-but-would-glasner-be-a-good-fit-for-manchester-united-crystal-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/685642\/","title":{"rendered":"Smart, independent and in demand \u2026 but would Glasner be a good fit for Manchester United? | Crystal Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oliver Glasner has shown a penchant for one-liners, as well a 3-4-2-1 formation, since he took over at Crystal Palace almost two years ago. The Austrian declared he was \u201cnot David Copperfield\u201d<\/a> in his first press conference and usually has a saying for whatever situation Palace are in, such as declaring they must not be \u201cone-hit wonders\u201d<\/a> after winning the FA Cup.<\/p>\n

It was therefore no surprise to find Glasner had come prepared when he played a straight bat to questions about his future this week after Ruben Amorim\u2019s sacking by Manchester United. \u201cI\u2019m not allowed to bet,\u201d he said when asked to comment on the fact he is the bookmakers\u2019 favourite to take over at Old Trafford in the summer.<\/p>\n

Much more revealing given the circumstances behind Amorim\u2019s departure was Glasner\u2019s answer to a question about whether there is any real difference between being a manager or head coach. \u201cEvery successful company is a discussion,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you have smart people there, and every club I believe has smart people \u2013 we definitely have here \u2013 and then you have your own opinion, and you don\u2019t need to always say: \u2018Yes, yes, yes.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s just yes men you\u2019re not successful. It would be, from my perspective, stupid if I didn\u2019t use the experience and the knowledge of the players, if I didn\u2019t use the experience and knowledge of a sporting director, of a chairman, of a scouting director, of a doctor, of a fitness coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is unlikely that was intended as a message to United\u2019s hierarchy, although it will surely have gone down well with Jason Wilcox and co. Yet they are not the only ones who could have Glasner in their sights this summer, when his contract is due to expire, with Tottenham and Bayern Munich among those believed to be keeping tabs.<\/p>\n

Siegmund Gruber, the chief executive of the Austrian club Lask, where Glasner spent four years before joining Eintracht Frankfurt, said in May<\/a> that several \u201cbig clubs\u201d had been asking how to contact the coach even before Palace\u2019s victory over Manchester City<\/a> at Wembley sealed their first major trophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve said: \u2018OK, but prepare yourself for the meeting. Because Oliver will have questions \u2013 not some, I will say a lot!\u2019\u201d Gruber said. \u201cHe is much smarter than a coach who comes in and just does a presentation on how his team will play. And I\u2019m quite sure that won\u2019t change with the bigger clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oliver Glasner delivered Crystal Palace\u2019s first major trophy with victory in last season\u2019s FA Cup final. Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Glasner said this week he expected to make a decision<\/a> about whether to extend his stay at Palace after more talks in the coming weeks with the chair, Steve Parish, but there is a growing feeling this could be his last season there. Bayern were interested in 2024 before they decided to appoint Vincent Kompany and Palace first tried to persuade Glasner to sign a new deal last March after RB Leipzig showed interest.<\/p>\n

They tried again in the summer but Glasner was reluctant to commit beyond the end of this season, when Palace hope to add the Conference League trophy to a cabinet that also contains the Community Shield<\/a>. His admission this week that his future will not depend on what happens in the transfer window is a departure from criticism of Palace\u2019s failure<\/a> to provide him with enough reinforcements for their debut campaign in Europe and could be a hint at what comes next.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say everyone in Austria is expecting him to leave and they are excited to see him at a really big club,\u201d says Andreas Heidenreich, the sports editor of the Austrian newspaper Kurier. \u201cGlasner has been successful wherever he has gone but he didn\u2019t coach an absolutely top club like Bayern or Manchester United. That\u2019s the only thing missing in his coaching career and that\u2019s what the Austrians want to see: if he can do it in a big club as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glasner cut his teeth as a coach at Red Bull Salzburg under Ralf Rangnick, who is credited with convincing him to become a manager. Glasner sounded out Rangnick \u2013 who has been in charge of Austria\u2019s men\u2019s team since he left United in 2022 after winning 11 of his 29 matches \u2013 before joining Palace and will no doubt seek more advice should Old Trafford come calling. The unknown is whether his counter-pressing approach, so successful at Eintracht and Palace, could work at a club where Glasner\u2019s team would be expected to have more possession. Palace have an average of 43.1% possession this season compared with Manchester United\u2019s 54%.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis approach was always based on being without the ball \u2013 a lot of pressing,\u201d says Heidenreich. \u201cSo it would be a big change from Amorim to Oliver Glasner; it\u2019s definitely another style of football. That\u2019s the point. Glasner suits a smaller club perfectly. That is what we all know because we have seen it in several clubs where he has been coach. So that is the only question not to be answered so far. Can Glasner coach a club where they have around 60% ball possession in every match?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oliver Glasner has shown a penchant for one-liners, as well a 3-4-2-1 formation, since he took over at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-685642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115868059013220970","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}