Glasner: I’m always thinking about how we can improve

First-team

19 May 2025

Oliver Glasner says that – while he thinks Crystal Palace should not look too far ahead whilst enjoying the present moment – he is continuing to think of ways he can help the club to progress.

After delivering the Eagles’ first-ever trophy on Saturday – a glorious FA Cup triumph against Manchester City at Wembley – the manager was back on pre-match press conference duty to preview the visit of Wolverhampton Wanderers, our final home game of the season.

But with silverware and a place in the UEFA Europa League secured, there was only one thing on everybody’s minds: the remarkable rise of Crystal Palace.

“I hope everybody can feel this,” Glasner smiled. “This is every day. Every day I'm just thinking: ‘OK, how can we improve the players, how can we improve as a team, how can we improve as a club, as an organisation?’ My only thoughts are about this.

“And it's the same when I talk to you about pre-season… we're planning pre-season, all the friendlies, so I'm 100 percent here, because I have a contract until 2026. And it's completely normal for me as a person, as a manager. This is because I love my job, I love being a manager, and that's why I'm always thinking about…

“Sometimes it's not so easy for the players, because I demand a lot, and they will hear it again today. And that's just how I am, and that's why all my thoughts are about now, the ending of the season, then having a meeting about the off-season programme for the players...

"We have a few internationals, and then when does everybody come back, organising the pre-season, and now we have the Community Shield one week before the start of the Premier League… so many things going on, and all my thoughts are just around this.

“This club got promoted in 2013. Since then, this club always progressed.

“You can be a one-hit wonder – but then you are gone, so it just makes no sense. And that's why we said, our planning shouldn't be ‘now we play in Europe, so we do crazy things, and then everything collapses’. No, how is the pathway? And we follow the pathway.

“And now we get a special reward – we can play in Europe – but we don't leave our pathway. And this pathway that didn't start with Oliver Glasner, this pathway started, I think, with the new owners in 2010, for Crystal Palace, and being very stable mid-table.

“Now it's going really step by step, but maybe winning this trophy, playing internationally, also getting this experience, maybe getting a player we couldn't get if we don't play international football, this can help us making the next step.

“This is why I think it's very good, and I think one of the guarantees is the Chairman here: he is very stable and is leading this club in a very stable way, and this pathway will continue.”

Glasner was asked further about his recent discussion of what brought him the most happiness from Saturday.

“Winning a trophy is not the biggest achievement, it's the happiness that we can give to our fans,” he smiled.

“Of course, I can’t tell every single story – for me, fans are never a ‘cloud’. When I talk about the fans, I’m always talking about every single one of them. When I’m talking about the team, I’m talking about every single one who’s involved.

“Of course I know many of their stories and that's nice. I experienced it the first time when we got promoted in Linz [at LASK] many years ago and the fans were running onto the pitch, and then there was one who was 75 or 80, and he came and hugged me and said: ‘thank you, thank you that you brought the club back’, and there were tears in his eyes. These are the moments and it was great to give something back.

“Of course, when it was [Eintracht] Frankfurt we had a convoy from the airport into the city with 300,000 fans waiting, having a parade through them, and there were small boys and girls crying ‘just please let me touch once the trophy’, and 90 year olds crying, kneeling in front of the cabinet – ‘the trophy is back after 42 years’.

“So when I'm talking about the memories, the emotions, I get goosebumps when I talk about it because this is what stays forever: it's not a cloud, the fans, and it's for them.

“Every single one has their own story, whatever it is. Some are sad, some are very positive whatever it is, but every single one, behind every single fan, stands his own story.

“What’s sure is that every single one was proud to be a Palace fan on Saturday, every single one enjoyed the last couple of weeks – the journey, and having then this huge success – and this is what I talked about after the game: for a few hours, minutes, depending on every single one, days, they forget all of this stuff.

“When we speak about football players, we speak about artists, we speak about actors, I think then we are responsible for entertainment. When you're watching a great movie, for one and a half hours you forget everything around you.

“At Wembley for this 100 minutes, and especially in the added time, everybody forgot what's around them, and I think this is what we are here for.

“This is why many, especially in England, love football, this is why football is sport number one in the world, and this was I think a best practice example how it should be – and how it can be.”

Match Details

Crystal Palace v Wolverhampton Wanderers
Tuesday, 20th May
Selhurst Park
20:00 BST
LIVE audio commentary on Palace TV+

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