Who's Abandoning Who?

May 17th, 2025, was the happiest day in Crystal Palace's history. They defeated Manchester City in the FA Cup final and lifted their first ever major trophy. The club was applauded for its growth, and the work done by the executives, manager, and players. They were the gold standard of mid-table sides. Now, the once peaceful marriage of manager Oliver Glasner and chairman Steve Parish is in disarray. Former club captain Marc Guehi is Manchester City's latest signing. To top it all off, 6th tier Macclesfield Town sent the Eagles home in their FA Cup defense. After their 2-1 loss to Sunderland, Glasner announced that he plans to leave the club in the summer and went as far as saying that he and the players are “being abandoned completely” by the club. Is his outrage valid?

Glasner appears to think his trophy-winning team has been stripped for parts. The following quote summarizes his rant well, “If you get your heart torn out twice this season, one day before a game, it was with Eze in the summer, it was with Guehi now. What should I tell the players all the time? What should I tell them? And then I see the performance today for 50, 60 minutes - it was not easy with all the circumstances going here with 12 players from the squad. I look at the bench, I can't react, just kids on the bench, and this has not happened yesterday, this is weeks ago. That's why I'm really frustrated today.”

He's not being unreasonable to feel that way. Losing your two best players in the space of six months is incredibly hard. It's not like the board has given him nothing in return though. Palace's net spend over the last 2 seasons is close to zero. They spent good money to bring in Yeremy Pino and, more recently, Brennan Johnson. They're investing profits back into the team. Crystal Palace just got caught in a rough patch. European competition is already stretching their squad. On top of that, Guehi was sold, Muñoz and Kamada have been injured, and Sarr was away at AFCON. All four of those players are starters. It's not usually as thin a squad as he made it seem in his interview.

In judging the situation, you have to consider things that happen behind the scenes. Glasner may have been promised things by the club. They may have told him Guehi would stay or that they'd make further investments. Regardless of what was said, the Palace manager had to have known that his captain could never stay until June. You can't let a player like Marc Guehi leave for free, especially if you're Crystal Palace. Financially, it can't happen.

Glasner is not a bad manager, he's a great one. His emotions overflowed after a string of bad results. He admitted that this week. He never said he regretted it though. If he feels misled by the club, he's allowed to harbor some disappointment, but he can't let it sink his players. Complaining about your squad size and experience in a press conference doesn't instill confidence in your players. Victim mentality doesn't promote growth or resilience. Clubs like Brentford, Brighton, and Bournemouth have been poached by bigger clubs much more frequently. They haven't let that slow them down. Their managers have been great examples of focusing on who is at the club and not on who has left.

The Crystal Palace drama holds no true betrayal. The only betrayal is Glasner's betrayal of reality. Losses on and off the field drove him to a point where he needed to release his tension. His outburst doesn't change reality. The reality is that Marc Guehi wanted to leave for quite a while. The reality is that personnel crises occur for almost every team at some point in the season. The reality is that Crystal Palace is a business with financial limits. I hope Oliver Glasner doesn't allow the hard parts of reality to let his tenure at Palace end with clouds of gloom. His story at Crystal Palace deserves a better ending. In the meantime, Palace need to hasten their efforts to find a leader for their next chapter.