Crystal Palace remain on the hunt for their Oliver Glasner replacement, and a manager idolised by Pep Guardiola is reportedly the favourite.
Crystal Palace continue hunt for Oliver Glasner’s heir
When Glasner stood on the Wembley turf in May 2025, a trophy held aloft for the first time in Crystal Palace’s 149-year history, it felt like the beginning of something.
A club that had spent decades flirting with significance had finally crossed the threshold into it, driven by an Austrian coach who arrived mid-season in February 2024 with a clear idea of what he wanted and the conviction to see it through.
The Community Shield followed. Then European football — Palace’s first — arrived via the Conference League. Steve Parish had, against most expectations, found the right man.
The reckoning, then, is particularly brutal.
Glasner confirmed in January that he had made his decision in October, telling Parish over dinner during the international break that he would not be extending his contract beyond the summer.
By that point, the season had already begun to curdle.
Crystal Palace reach agreement in principle for signing after ‘decisive move’ from Parish
Steve Parish and co have entered the race with aplomb.
Marc Guehi departed for Man City in January, while Jean-Philippe Mateta also threatened to quit for AC Milan, and the squad that powered Palace’s extraordinary rise had been dismantled faster than it could be replenished.
The results have reflected that deterioration — 13th in the Premier League, fans audibly venting their frustrations at Selhurst Park, the gap between last season’s achievement and this season’s reality opening wider.
Glasner will see the season out — he is committed to that — and there remains the possibility of Conference League glory to salvage something meaningful before he departs.
Attention is turning irresistibly to who comes next, because the identity of that appointment will determine whether Palace consolidate their status as an established top-half Premier League club or slide back towards the mediocrity that defined too much of their history before Glasner arrived.
The names that have circulated are instructive in themselves.
Sean Dyche — out of work since his dismissal at Nottingham Forest earlier this season — has been suggested as a pragmatic, safety-first option.
The 54-year-old has never overseen a Premier League relegation in a lengthy managerial career, carries European experience from his time at Forest, and would bring a certain rugged reliability to a club that craves stability.
There are also suggestions that Palace are fans of Andoni Iraola, but he’s likely to reject them in favour of staying at Bourenmouth or a move to Athletic Bilbao.
Another target, according to reports, is ex-Tottenham and Brentford boss Thomas Frank.
Thomas Frank in pole position for Crystal Palace job
According to Football Insider, Palace have sounded out Frank over the job, and he is currently in pole position to get it.
Frank became a free agent in February when Tottenham dismissed him after a damaging run of results, but the weight of that failure should not obscure what he achieved across seven years at Brentford — work that the English football world widely recognised as exceptional.
He managed 317 games for the Bees, winning 132, and delivered the club’s first top-flight season in 74 years, before establishing them as a credible mid-table Premier League side on a budget that bore no comparison to the clubs around them.
Ivan Toney, Bryan Mbeumo and David Raya are among the players he transformed into top-level footballers, with City’s Guardiola once calling Frank ‘one of the best’ managers around.
Even at Spurs, where the scale of the task overwhelmed him, his side were unbeaten at home in the Champions League — a detail that speaks to his organisational quality even when circumstances conspire against him.
For Palace, a club that could yet enter next season with European football if they progress in the Conference League, Frank’s ability to compete intelligently and develop players without vast resources makes him a compelling fit.
If Parish gets this right, Glasner’s legacy could yet be the springboard rather than the summit.
Crystal Palace very keen on British youngster with Man City willing to approve shock sale
He’s a “special” player.
