Crystal Palace are closing in on an agreement to appoint Lens head coach Pierre Sage as their new manager.Palace have been searching for a successor to Oliver Glasner, who is leaving the south London club this summer following the expiry of his contract.Sage guided Lens to a second-place finish in Ligue 1 this season — six points behind Paris Saint-Germain — in his first campaign in charge as well as leading them to the Coupe de France, beating Nice in the final, for the first time in club history.The 47-year-old’s previous senior managerial experience came with Lyon, whom he managed between January 2024 and January 2025.The move for Sage follows Glasner’s announcement in January that he would be leaving Selhurst Park upon the end of his terms in June, shortly after confirming that captain Marc Guehi was departing for Manchester City.Palace were eager to make a quick appointment, knowing the importance of having the new manager in place for the start of pre-season, especially in a World Cup year, and despite interest in the outgoing Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola.When it became clear Iraola was to join Liverpool, Palace swiftly focussed their efforts on Sage — who The Athletic reported on May 30 was also under consideration at the Merseyside club.Glasner replaced Roy Hodgson as Palace boss in February 2024 and guided the club to a tenth-place finish in the 2023-24 campaign.In his second season and first full term in charge of the club, Palace finished 12th and won the FA Cup – the first trophy in the club’s history – by beating Manchester City.This year Glasner signed off by winning the Community Shield against Liverpool at Wembley in August after a penalty shootout, before guiding Palace to the Conference League title in Leipzig after a 1-0 win over Rayo Vallecano, cementing his status as the club’s greatest ever manager. Palace finished the season 15th in the Premier League but will play in the Europa League next term after their Conference League win.Palace won the Conference League last month with a final win over Rayo Vallecano (Oliver Hardt/Getty Images)Sage profile fits PalaceAnalysis by Matt WoosnamSage has proven his coaching capabilities, with Lyon and then last season with Lens. Those successes over the past three seasons have caught the eye of the Palace hierarchy.Although he is relatively inexperienced at a high level, his work in taking Lyon out of the relegation zone and into the Europa League before leaving them sixth in Ligue 1 speaks to his ability, while winning manager of the season with Lens last term continued that success.His experience extends to coaching as an assistant and across the lower leagues in France. That versatility, given he is also a former academy coach, is valuable. His work with young players in Lyon’s academy will also have pleased Palace who want to make the most of their youth-team prospects.Stylistically, he prefers a similar way of playing to Oliver Glasner, with an intensive pressing style, but also flexibility in how he sets up his teams. That continuity will be welcome, especially with a significant chunk of the squad at the World Cup.He will need to prepare the team for their Europa League campaign after their success in the Conference League last season and discuss transfer targets as well as the possibility that some of his squad may depart this summer.Palace will expect him to pick up where Glasner left off, but there will need to be realism that he will find it extremely difficult to top the club’s best-ever manager winning three trophies.Nevertheless, a better performance in the Premier League than last season’s 15th-place finish to go alongside a decent run into the knockout stages of the Europa League, should be something that he strives for.That will, inevitably, depend on the quality and depth of his squad though.