Oliver Glasner’s “round” rings show very clearly how much the man from Riedau has grown and matured. At 20, he was a young professional at SV Ried, on the verge of moving up from the 2nd division to the Bundesliga. At 30, he played a guest game at LASK, before returning (highly successfully) to Ried. At 40, he took on his first job as head coach in the Innviertel – and now, just ten years later, his career has taken him from Ried via LASK, Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt to Crystal Palace in the English Premier League.
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The Innviertel native will not be celebrating his 50th birthday today in a big way. On Tuesday evening, his team hosted Norwich in the English League Cup. After two defeats at the start of the Premier League season, Glasner is still firmly in the saddle as a coach who is extremely popular with the fans, but the stress level is rising. Crystal Palace’s next game in the Premier League is next Sunday at Chelsea FC, where the points are also at a premium.
As a birthday present, Glasner, who is certainly not a fake but a real 50-year-old due to his authentic nature, would like to see reinforcements in the attack. Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah is said to be the preferred candidate. Crystal Palace sold an important asset to Bayern Munich in the summer with Michael Olise. With Jordan Ayew, they are missing an experienced player in attack.
The transfer of Nketiah is expected to be finalized on Tuesday – Crystal Palace and Arsenal FC are said to have agreed on a transfer fee of 29.6 million euros. If that’s true, then Glasner will have another reason to celebrate on Wednesday.
