Oliver Glasner walked out of Crystal Palace on a rain-lashed Tuesday in May, the club’s German midfielder Joachim Andersen shaking his head in the dugout as the Austrian manager’s final press conference ended in a stand-up row with reporters. The 48-year-old’s resignation came just 375 days after he oversaw one of English football’s most improbable trebles, but his exit was anything but triumphant.

It started with a quiet handshake in a south London boardroom in November 2023. Steve Parish, the club’s chairman, had summoned Glasner for what was meant to be a routine interview. Instead, Parish left convinced the Austrian—then managing Eintracht Frankfurt—was the man to replace Roy Hodgson, whose contract was already on borrowed time after a fifth-place finish the season before. Glasner, a disciplined tactician with a reputation for reviving underperforming teams, had reshaped Frankfurt into a Bundesliga force, but he had never worked in the Premier League. Parish took the risk anyway.

By February 2024, Glasner was in charge. His first act? A 2-1 win over Liverpool in the Community Shield at Wembley, a result that stunned football. Palace, a club with no major trophies in 154 years, had just lifted silverware. But the celebration was short-lived. Days later, Uefa dropped a bombshell: Palace had breached multi-club ownership rules through businessman John Textor’s stake in both the Eagles and Lyon. The club was stripped of Europa League football and relegated to the Conference League, a decision Parish called “the greatest injustice in European football.”

The rollercoaster continued. In January 2025, Palace were knocked out of the FA Cup by non-league Macclesfield—one of the biggest shocks in the competition’s history—amid a 12-game winless streak that left them teetering near the Premier League relegation zone. But then, against all odds, Glasner’s side roared back. A dramatic run to the Conference League final saw Palace defeat Atalanta, Marseille, and Inter Milan en route to Leipzig, where a 1-0 victory over Rayo Vallecano sealed their historic crown. The trophy was Glasner’s third in 375 days, a feat no Palace manager had ever matched.

The cracks, however, had been widening for months. In January, Marc Guéhi—Palace’s rock at center-back—agreed a £35m move to Liverpool, only for the deal to collapse at the last minute after Glasner vetoed the club’s attempt to replace him. The Austrian, in the final year of his contract, reportedly threatened to resign if Guéhi left, branding the club’s approach “completely abandoning” his project. The standoff exposed fractures between Glasner and the board, with fans split over who was right. “It was a civil war,” said Ellie Killick, editor of the Palace fanzine Eagle Eye View. “One minute we’re lifting trophies, the next we’re arguing over who’s selling who.”

With the treble secured, Glasner’s future remained uncertain. Reports suggested Parish had offered him a new contract, but the Austrian’s relationship with the club had frayed. In his final press conference, he refused to answer questions about his future, walking out mid-sentence as cameras flashed. His last words to the media were terse: “I gave everything. Now it’s time for someone else.” Palace now face a summer of introspection. The question remains: Can they replicate Glasner’s success without him?

1. First — Identify a successor who can maintain the club’s European momentum
2. Second — Address the squad’s defensive depth after Guéhi’s near-departure
3. Third — Rebuild bridges with a fanbase left divided by the club’s recent decisions

The answer will shape Palace’s next chapter—and determine whether Glasner’s legacy fades or endures as the club’s greatest manager.