The final whistle in Leipzig confirmed not just a Conference League title for Crystal Palace, but the end of an era. Oliver Glasner, who delivered three major trophies in 375 days, stepped down after a 1-0 victory over Rayo Vallecano, leaving a transformed club. It was a fitting climax to a 12-month period that lurched from triumph to turmoil, from U-turns to civil war, and ultimately to European glory.
Glasner’s Palace journey began quietly. A meeting with chairman Steve Parish in late 2023, arranged by then sporting director Dougie Freedman, sparked an unlikely appointment. The Austrian, whose Bundesliga work at Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt had impressed, took over from Roy Hodgson in February 2024. Within months, he masterminded an FA Cup final win over Manchester City, ending the club’s 120-year wait for a major trophy.
Yet barely had the champagne gone flat when disaster struck. UEFA ruled that John Textor’s stake in both Palace and Lyon, who had also qualified for the Europa League, breached multi-club ownership rules. The Eagles were demoted to the Conference League—a decision Parish called "one of the greatest injustices in European football." An appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport failed, but the team refused to wilt, starting the new season by beating Premier League champions Liverpool in the Community Shield at Wembley.
The turbulence, however, was about to escalate. Talisman Eberechi Eze departed for Arsenal in a record deal, depriving Glasner of his most creative force. Then, on transfer deadline day, Marc Guehi was on the verge of joining Liverpool for over £35m—only for Palace to pull the plug when a move for Brighton’s Igor Julio as his replacement collapsed. That U-turn reportedly pushed Glasner to the brink: he threatened to quit if Parish sanctioned the sale, an early sign of the friction that would define the season.
After a promising start, Palace plunged into a nightmarish winter. A 12-game winless run across all competitions sent them tumbling down the Premier League table and out of the Conference League’s top eight, forcing a play-off. The nadir came in early January when non-league Macclesfield inflicted one of the biggest FA Cup shocks in history. With the club in crisis, Glasner dropped a bombshell: he would leave at the end of the season after the board agreed to sell Guehi to Manchester City, accusing decision-makers of "completely abandoning" his side.
The announcement could have triggered an implosion. But Parish, instead of bowing to the outrage, opted to keep faith in the man who had already delivered silverware. Sources told BBC Sport that the thought of sacking Glasner barely entered his mind. It would prove a defining gamble. Glasner, for all his emotional outbursts, refocused the squad and steered them through the Conference League play-offs and into the knockout rounds.
Slowly, the storm clouds lifted. The cohesion that had made Palace FA Cup winners returned. A disciplined run in Europe built momentum, and when they reached the final in Leipzig, the earlier strife felt like a distant memory. The 1-0 victory over Rayo Vallecano secured not only a second European trophy but also a place in next season’s Europa League—precisely the prize that UEFA’s demotion had snatched away 12 months earlier.
Glasner, ever dramatic, chose his final Selhurst Park farewell to poke fun at the chairman. "Now I’m leaving, I don’t have to agree with the chairman," he smiled. "He said the best day was the FA Cup final, but I don’t agree. The best day is still to come in Leipzig." The quip underlined how far the club had come: from a civil war to a united, trophy-laden goodbye.
For the players, the transformation was profound. Midfielder Adam Wharton reflected: "He has got to be one of the best managers Crystal Palace have ever had. He has made a massive difference for how the club looks at competitions. We are not just looking to stay in the Premier League and be in Europe, we are looking to win and be as high as possible." Ellie Killick from fanzine Eagle Eye View echoed that Glasner had "completely changed the trajectory" of the club, shifting ambitions from mid-table security to genuine silverware hunting.
Glasner’s exit marks the end of a volatile but transformative chapter. Palace now operate in a new reality, where European qualification is the norm and trophies are no longer a distant dream. The Austrian’s legacy is not without scars—the Guehi sagas, the threats to quit, the FA Cup humiliation—but it will be remembered for a 12-month spell that rewrote the club’s history. As Glasner himself said, other good chapters will follow, but this one was extraordinary. Based on reporting from BBC Sport.
