Will Oliver Glasner damage Crystal Palace’s legacy by leaving Nottingham Forest?

The Crystal Palace fan Alex Pewter

With managers in football, it often appears that “the King is dead, long live the King” as you trade for another person who is in charge of another. This time, Crystal Palace fans were shocked to find that the old King was very much alive, and to complete the questionable match, he appeared in the rival’s castle.

With Oliver Glasner set to become the latest in a succession of Nottingham Forest managers, the reaction from Palace fans has been negative, to say the least.

Basically, it’s because people care deeply. If they don’t care about the coaches or players leaving, they probably won’t care about their next destination.

Forest as Glasner’s next club carries the edge, and it’s not because Palace fans have anything against Morgan Gibbs-White or Chris Wood.

It focuses on their club owner, his links and dealings with former Palace investor John Textor and the Uefa chant last season that saw the club relegated to the Conference League – even if that worked out well in May.

Personally, I’m happy to separate the most successful manager in Palace history from whatever he does next. For others, there may be anger or disappointment, hoping that time will heal, as it often does.

Recent history suggests that, despite any flawed dealings he may have had with Steve Parish, Evangelos Marinakis is unlikely to condone bad things or press conference outbursts.

Forest, as they have done in repeated seasons, are likely to overtake Palace. Perhaps they will be able to overtake them in the league next year, but for those who believe in Glasner’s ability as a manager, Forest seems more of a negative outcome than the next step in his career.

After all, it is very nice to say goodbye to players at the level of Marc Guehi or Michael Olise when they go up. It’s the same with managers.

Nottingham Forest fan Pat Riddell

If anyone thought it was going to be an ordinary summer at Nottingham Forest, then they were seriously mistaken. It turns out that Vitor Pereira, who arrived in February with a contract until next summer, had a clause that allowed any team to terminate him before the end of June.

Given that Pereira’s rumored new contract in May had not yet surfaced, with other rumors of a move to Saudi Arabia, it begged the question: What happened?

Well, Oliver Glasner is the answer. In some ways it’s understandable – a number of senior managers were available this summer and while it looked like Forest had secured a head coach for the near future, it wasn’t a long-term plan by design.

Who knows what would have happened with Pereira – he certainly got his chance for a full season. Picking up the pieces from two disastrous managerial appointments, the Portuguese guided us to Premier League safety and the semi-finals of the Europa League. And he did it with grace, love and humility.

However, Glasner is a proven winner – and has taken Crystal Palace to unprecedented heights. The Europa League cup with Eintracht Frankfurt and then the FA Cup with Palace and last season’s Conference League is a record.

The anonymous beef between the clubs will no doubt continue now, although Palace’s eventual relegation from Uefa has seen them claim the European title and it hasn’t exactly fooled the incumbent manager.

There are fears that Glasner has a tendency to clash with club ranks – and Evangelos Marinakis will not take kindly to a manager who thinks he is in charge. But equally, the owner wants the club to have a winning mentality – which is why he brought in Glasner.

As always, the forest is a box office hit – even if it is due to controversy. With Elliot Anderson’s £116m move to Manchester City, the transfer window will undoubtedly be interesting again.