Africa-Press – Kenya. When Crystal Palace languished in the Premier League’s bottom three in October without a win in eight games, manager Oliver Glasner gave an insight into the managerial style that has now led them to the brink of history.
Asked, after a loss at Nottingham Forest, to explain how he would react to a wretched start that had brought Palace only three points, the Austrian said: “It’s time for hugging players, not kicking them.”
And there was plenty of hugging at Wembley after Glasner’s Palace moved to within one game of the club’s first major honour with an outstanding FA Cup semi-final win over Aston Villa.
The 50-year-old’s refusal to embrace tough love and simply embrace was rewarded with a 3-0 victory inspired by the brilliance of Eberechi Eze and Ismaila Sarr, but which was also a pitch-perfect team display from back to front.
And, amid it all, four key elements of Palace’s landmark victory – Eze, goalkeeper Dean Henderson, Marc Guehi, and Adam Wharton – all pushed their claims to England head coach Thomas Tuchel in brilliant fashion.
As the Palace fans belted out their Dave Clark Five anthem ‘Glad All Over’ at one end of Wembley draped in red and blue, this high-class performance was not simply justification for Glasner’s methods, but also the faith shown in him by chairman Steve Parish and the club’s hierarchy.
The barren run in the early weeks of this campaign – their worst start in the Premier League since 1992-93 – came after Palace ended last season with 19 points from their last 21.
It also came, however, after they lost brilliant forward Michael Olise to Bayern Munich and key defender Joachim Andersen to Fulham.
Parish backed Glasner, telling BBC Sport after the semi-final: “I never had any doubt – watching him work, the positivity and the way he is. He loves football, always believes we can win, and he instils that in his players.
“This was superb. I thought they were excellent. All credit to the manager and the players. You can see what it means to them.
“I thought this was a real celebration of fans. Two clubs who haven’t won a lot of honours in recent times. For us never. A great occasion at Wembley and we stand at the edge of doing something we’ve never done before.”
The crowning moment of Glasner’s career to date has been winning the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022 – claiming the first major honour in this proud, passionate south London club’s history may even top that.
It was done under the gaze of three of his predecessors in Roy Hodgson, Alan Smith and Steve Coppell, the latter taking Palace to the 1990 FA Cup final, where they lost after a replay against Manchester United.
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