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.
