How long does it take for a fairytale to crumble? Preston North End were the first team to win the league and FA Cup double — in 1889 — but have not featured in the top flight since 1961. It is just under ten years between Leicester City winning the Premier League, when the odds on them doing so were 5,000-1, and the club being docked six points last week, putting them in danger of demotion from the Championship.
And when it comes to Crystal Palace, we are looking at a paradise shattered before a year is even up. It really is, well, upsetting, to see a club with so much going for it failing to build on the most beautiful and uplifting day of their history, when they defeated Manchester City at Wembley.
But what about Wigan Athletic, you may shout? They were relegated three days after winning the FA Cup in 2013. That was, though, a case of a fairytale diluting the pain and, in many respects, contributing to the decline. Wigan were not sufficiently equipped to fight relegation while also enjoying a cup run. Roberto Martínez, the manager at the time, hoped his players would find the energy for last-gasp heroics, but they were shattered and understandably distracted.
Wigan were relegated from the Premier League in 2013, only three days after they won the FA Cup
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND
What followed with Palace was much more perplexing. Even automatic qualification for Europe became a draining and miserable experience, with the club falling into the Conference League due to red tape, and after unsuccessful legal wrangling. What a blow for Oliver Glaser, who had won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022 and was no doubt salivating at the prospect of another run deep into European competition. The Conference League is more winnable, in theory, but less prestigious and just as draining. Not that you would have guessed it from the transfer window that followed FA Cup glory.
There was a marked lack of anything that could be labelled as a statement of intent. Instead, the creatively critical Eberechi Eze was sold to Arsenal. In came Yeremy Pino, who has been impressive, but, overall, if you knew nothing about the glory of the summer you would find no forensic evidence of it in the business dealings.
And yet Glasner kept the team more than merely competitive in the league until early December. Last month, though, was quite horrid. Marc Guéhi, their influential captain, signed for Manchester City, Glasner informed the remaining squad he would be leaving the club at the end of the season, their defence of the FA Cup ended in ignominy against Macclesfield and, after the defeat at Sunderland, Glasner declared that his squad “are being abandoned completely” by the Palace hierarchy. Few expected the Austrian would last the week, but Steve Parish is an astute assessor of worth and no doubt understood the best man to keep the team from imploding was still the man who orchestrated the cup run.
Glasner has lost some of the players central to Palace’s FA Cup success, such as Guéhi
MICHAEL REGAN/THE FA VIA GETTY IMAGES
All the same, there has been sniffiness both about Glasner’s outburst and the fact he revealed his intention to leave.
“I don’t say I’m perfect,” Glaser responded. “I would like to be. I never attacked anyone personally, I just explained my feelings.”
This was something he did at Frankfurt, and before then at Wolfsburg. In both instances, he felt his success ought to have prompted squad investment. This is, according to his critics, proof that he is a difficult character to work with, but surely it is more a case of someone hoping to build on glory and understanding the inherent limitations of a team, having squeezed the most he could out of it.
Glasner has gained a reputation as a difficult manager to work with
LEE KEUNEKE/PA
Glasner is as close to a football genius as we have right now when you factor in squad depth and financial resources. He has a heightened sense of social justice, so that he never forgets how lucky he and his players are to be fulfilling their dreams. But that also means he expects fairness at all levels, and that delivering silverware ought to be rewarded with expansion rather than contraction.
Palace face Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday — an unlikely rivalry that is quirky, rather than bitter, and certainly unlikely to stir the emotions in the same way as the cup exploits. But there is the added edge that both clubs are on a poor run and separated by only two points in the Premier League table. A win for either club would quell the growing disquiet and stop them becoming the answer to the question of which teams could falter to help West Ham United survive. The only fairytale left for Palace is to avoid a relegation tussle and for Glasner to be fêted as he departs in May, when his contract expires.
Will other clubs now be scared to hire him? If they are, then more fool them. He is the antithesis of the Ruben Amorim-style of manager who puts their philosophy before the team, exemplified by the fact the Portuguese imposed his beloved 3-4-3 on a Manchester United squad totally unsuited to it whereas Glasner, a fan of 4-4-2, put the Palace squad first and plumped for 3-4-3 because it was best for the players.
I know who, come the summer, any leading club should rush, if required, to appoint.