Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner has openly questioned the club’s internal support system after a painful 2-1 defeat to Sunderland yesterday. Speaking with visible frustration, the Austrian coach suggested the players are being left exposed at a critical point in the season.
His comments come amid confirmation of his planned exit, as earlier reported by SoftFootball, where Glasner confirmed he will leave Palace at the end of the campaign in search of a new challenge.
The immediate trigger was the looming sale of captain Marc Guehi to Manchester City, a deal SoftFootball revealed had already been agreed for £20m. According to Glasner, he was only informed at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, barely 24 hours before kickoff, a timing that left him stunned and disrupted preparations.
Glasner made it clear that his outburst was not about self-preservation. He explained the emotional weight the squad is carrying in a post shared by Fabrizio Romano on his official X account.
Fabrizio Romano posted:
Oliver Glasner: We feel no support. I see the players and everybody is disappointed.
Why I’m saying this is not to protect myself, I don’t care about myself, but they need to be protected because they are leaving their hearts on the pitch.
To him, losing leaders like Guehi, after already seeing Eberechi Eze leave in the summer, felt like abandonment. His decision not to make a single substitution at the Stadium of Light raised eyebrows, but Glasner defended it by pointing to the bench.
He described the available options as kids who have never played in a stadium with an atmosphere like that, insisting it would have been unfair to throw them in. With just 12 or 13 senior players available for weeks, fatigue has clearly set in.
Jean-Philippe Mateta’s situation summed it up. The forward completed 95 minutes despite a swollen knee that ruled him out of training the day before. It was, in Glasner’s view, another sign that the players need support rather than silence from above.
Although already set to depart, Glasner reiterated his commitment:
Yes, because the players deserve it. The players and the fans deserve it 100%.
He framed his comments as a final plea, warning the board plainly:
You will get the bill. Not Oliver Glasner will get the bill, Crystal Palace will get it.
It did not sound like excuses, just frustration. Glasner spoke because he felt the players were being left alone, and his words were aimed upward, not at the pitch. Whether the club listens now may define what comes next for Palace.
