Crystal Palace have held talks with Oliver Glasner about replacing Roy Hodgson at the Premier League strugglers with the former Eintracht Frankfurt boss labelled a ‘special’ coach and a tactical ‘mastermind’.
HITC Football understands that, following Monday’s latest capitulation at home to London rivals Chelsea, relegation-threatened Crystal Palace have stepped up their pursuit of a new head coach.
Ipswich Town’s Kieran McKenna and Steve Cooper, a long-time target of Palace chairman Steve Parish, have both been linked heavily in recent times. But HITC have been informed that is Oliver Glasner who now moved into pole position.
Crystal Palace in Oliver Glasner talks
The softly-spoken Austrian remains out of work after leaving Frankfurt in May. And we understand that Glasner impressed Parish during initial talks with the Selhurst Park chief, his potential appointment potentially quite the coup for a team now sitting just five points above the Premier League’s bottom three.
“(Palace hiring Glasner) would be a surprise,” Sky Germany reporter Philipp Hinze explains, the 49-year-old having been mentioned alongside the likes of Tottenham, Bayern Munich and even Real Madrid in previous months.
“Glasner won the Europa League. (He) achieved a Champions League qualification with Frankfurt and Wolfsburg. (Glasner also) averaged two points a game with LASK Linz in Austria.”
Europa League winner may be heading to Selhurst Park
The 49-year-old guided Frankfurt to European glory in 2022 – his side beating Rangers on penalties in Seville – while also reaching the final of the DFB Pokal. Die Adler also defeated Barcelona and West Ham during that thrilling continental run.
They then finished ahead of Marseille and Sporting Lisbon to reach the last-16 of the Champions League that following campaign.
“He’s an underrated coach. He’s a mastermind tactically and he has his own mind, his own ideas,” adds Hinze. “He’s a very strong and powerful person and he’s not a guy who says ‘yes’ to everything. He’s special in a positive way and a very good coach. A very, very good coach.
“When you look at where Wolfsburg are without Glasner… yeah, he’s good.”
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