Coach urges Palace to win and claim lost Europa League place

Palace and Glasner eye fairytale end after winter of discontent

The manager can sign off a tumultuous season in style if he adds the Conference League to last year’s FA Cup

27 May 2026 - The Guardian

Ed Aarons

Oliver Glasner couldn’t resist the temptation. As he addressed the crowd after his last match at Selhurst Park on Sunday, the Austrian who will go down as Crystal Palace’s greatest manager showed he retains his sense of humour. “Now I’m leaving, I don’t have to agree with the chairman,” he said with a smile. “He said the best day was the FA Cup final but I don’t agree. The best day is still to come in Leipzig.”

Should Palace beat Rayo Vallecano in tonight’s Conference League final to win a third trophy in 12 months, Glasner’s stay will have a fairytale ending that barely seemed possible in the dark days of January. After the holders were stunned by Macclesfield in one of the biggest FA Cup shocks recorded, he accused the chair, Steve Parish, of abandoning him by then selling the captain Marc Guéhi to Manchester City and told supporters who had chanted his name on three successful trips to Wembley last year to “stay humble”.

What a difference three and a half months and a maiden European adventure have made. Somehow Glasner managed to galvanise Palace to reach another final and he has the chance to follow up his Europa League triumph with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022. “It would be a great way to finish the movie off,” said the goalkeeper Dean Henderson, who replaced Guéhi as captain. “Everyone wants that happy ending and everyone’s working towards that.”

The England goalkeeper achieved instant hero status after saving a penalty in last year’s FA Cup final against City and put £1,000 behind a bar on his way home from Wembley. Henderson revealed this week that he experienced depression that left him not wanting to get out of bed for three days after Palace won that first major trophy in their history. He also said after the team beat Shakhtar Donetsk 5-2 on aggregate in the semifinals this month that Palace’s controversial demotion from the Europa League, after they were deemed to have breached rules on multi-club ownership, had been the inspiration for their Conference League run.

Victory in eastern Germany would assure a spot in the Europa League that was cruelly snatched from them, albeit they would have to navigate next season without the expertise and nous of Glasner. His next destination remains a mystery but whatever happens, the 51-yearold, who has been living apart from his family in Austria since replacing Roy Hodgson in February 2024, will leave south London with a heavy heart.

“I will go home and have a rest on my terrace and enjoy my family,” he said after the defeat by Arsenal on Sunday – Palace’s 59th game of an unrelenting season. “When you have this schedule, it’s for me now also giving them time back. This is what they deserve and what I think I deserve as well. Then let’s see what the future brings. I really had more than two fantastic years of my life, and not just in football, but everywhere at this club. That’s what it’s all about and I think I could help to develop and progress Crystal Palace.”

Glasner paid tribute to the scouting department that spotted Michael Olise – recently voted the Bundesliga’s player of the season – and Arsenal’s title-winner Eberechi Eze in the Championship. West Ham’s relegation means only the big six and Everton have been in the Premier League for longer than what will be Palace’s 14 successive seasons – not bad for a club that failed to avoid relegation in their previous four Premier League campaigns in 1993, 1995, 1998 and 2005.

“This is a huge achievement for Crystal Palace,” Glasner said. “It’s a huge achievement for Steve Parish. He took the club over when Palace was in administration and they got promoted. I know Steve now quite well and I know he will always do what’s necessary to stay in the league. I think 12 Crystal Palace players will go to the World Cup and that means it will be a very short pre-season with many challenges. But I can promise the new manager whoever he will be, he will find a fantastic group of players, fantastic characters who are really always working very hard to succeed. This is the foundation of every success.”

Palace will be strong favourites to round off Glasner’s stay in style against Rayo, whose wage bill of £30m a season is a fifth of theirs. Palace’s players have spent the past fortnight preparing to face a side unbeaten in seven La Liga matches and will not underestimate them.

“We showed them how they will press us, what we need in possession, how we want to get pressure on them, how they are going to play,” said the Palace manager. “Now it’s just getting the fine-tuning. We don’t want to change anything and we won’t change anything. It’s a final and now everything is possible.”

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‘The players did a video and spoke from the heart’

Oliver Glasner has urged Crystal Palace to win the Conference League final so they can take up the Europa League place denied them this season after they fell foul of UEFA's multiclub ownership rules.

27 May 2026 - The Guardian

Ed Aarons - @Leipzig

Last year’s FA Cup winners were demoted to the Conference League after Uefa deemed John Textor had a controlling interest in Palace and Lyon, who had also qualified for the secondary competition. The south London club will face Rayo Vallecano in Leipzig tonight at the end of their first European campaign in Glasner’s last match.

The Austrian, who also guided Palace to the Community Shield in August and won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022, confirmed in January that he would leave at the end of the season.

Glasner revealed that the Palace players had held a farewell party for him on Monday, when he backed them to win a third trophy in 12 months and secure a Europa League spot next season.

“They had a nice farewell to me and then I said a few words,” the manager said. “I said for me that the best thing would be of course winning tomorrow because then the players would be in the Europa League next year and then we get what we should have got this year.

“I would like to watch on TV that they start with the desire and the confidence that we can win the Europa League as well. This would make me really happy because then I think we created a mindset all together where at the end it’s always successful.

“That doesn’t mean that you win a trophy every single year but at the end you will always get the best out of every single player. That’s why I hope that we win and these players can play European football again next year.”

Palace are hopeful of appointing Andoni Iraola as Glasner’s replacement, although it is understood that the outgoing Bournemouth manager also has interest from Milan and Bayer Leverkusen. Pierre Sage, who led Lens to second place in Ligue 1 this season, is understood to be a contender if Iraola turns them down. The Palace captain, Dean Henderson, said losing Glasner would be “a huge miss”.

“I think he knows that from yesterday,” the England goalkeeper said. “The players did a send-off video and spoke from the heart.”

The Palace chair, Steve Parish, was spotted enjoying the sunshine in Leipzig, where a replica trophy has been on display at the city’s Marktplatz. More than 15,000 Palace supporters are expected in the city.

“The team’s got a special connection with the supporters and when I joined I felt like that was distant,” Henderson said. “It’s good to see since the manager has come in we’ve built that rapport with the supporters. They can really help us.”

Adam Wharton and Chris Richards trained yesterday but Glasner would not confirm whether either would start against a side, managed by Iraola’s former assistant Iñigo Pérez, who operate on a fifth of Palace’s budget.

“I think we share football traits with Crystal Palace,” Pérez said. “The effort, the collective … For me, Crystal Palace is a dream rival. I think that beyond the money comparisons, we must represent the Vallecas neighbourhood. Maintaining our identity will be the right approach.”