Oliver Glasner should return to Crystal Palace on Sunday as a hero.
With the Eagles he won the FA Cup, Europa Conference League and the Community Shield to etch his name into Selhurst Park history. His final match in charge was that 1-0 win over Rayo Vallecano in Leipzig in May.
Yet his summer move to Nottingham Forest, after opting to leave Palace at the of last season, has left his legacy tarnished in the eyes of Eagles fans.
A new modern-day rivalry means the reception he gets when Forest travel to Selhurst Park on Sunday could be mixed.
Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis is currently suing Palace over a banner which was unfurled by home supporters at Selhurst Park last season.
That animosity grew from when Forest took Palace’s spot in the Europa League for 2025-26 due to Palace breaching Uefa’s multi-club ownership rules.
Of course, that inadvertently helped Glasner lift the Europa Conference League, following Palace’s demotion into that competition.
Because of that success and others – leaving him as the most successful manager in Palace’s history – the Austrian deserves to be lauded in south London on Sunday afternoon.
Palace owner Steve Parish has urged fans to give him a “fantastic reception” and ignore the “pantomime narratives”.
He is right, Glasner left and moved on to something else, that is the nature of the game. He is not the first and will not be the last.
Of course part of football is tribal rivalry but Glasner deserves to be recognised for what he achieved, not to be painted as the villain after so much success with Palace.
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