Glasner walks out of Crystal Palace with the Conference League and Leverkusen waiting
Oliver Glasner walked off the pitch at the Red Bull Arena on Wednesday night with a Conference League winners' medal, the kind of farewell most managers do not get to script. The Austrian leaves Crystal Palace at the end of his contract in June with the second piece of major silverware in the club's history, a Europa League place that the side has just earned for the season that follows, and a Bundesliga return that looks very close to taking shape.
A January exit and a strange spring
The exit was confirmed in January. The contract Glasner signed in February 2024 ran out in June and Palace did not move to extend it. Eberechi Eze had already been sold to Arsenal for £67.5m in August 2025, and the question of how committed the board was to the squad Glasner had built was settled by then. There were stretches of the spring when sections of the home support stopped singing his name.
The Conference League run cut through the noise. Palace beat Zrinjski, AEK Larnaca, Fiorentina and Shakhtar, and Wednesday's 1-0 win over Rayo Vallecano made them the third English club to lift the trophy in its five seasons of existence, after West Ham in 2023 and Chelsea in 2025.
Leverkusen have the cleanest opening
Bayer Leverkusen are the cleanest landing spot. Kasper Hjulmand is leaving the BayArena at the end of the German season after the club opted against extending him, with his final match against Hamburger SV at the weekend. The Danish coach was appointed in September after Erik ten Hag was sacked and finished the season mid-table, never convincing the front office that he was the long-term plan.
Leverkusen want a fresh start and have been holding parallel talks with several names. Glasner sits high on that list. He is available on a free, knows the Bundesliga well from his Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt years, and the Europa League he lifted with Frankfurt in 2022, beating Rangers on penalties in Seville, is the closest reference point on his CV to where Leverkusen think they should be.
The Premier League market closed early
The English jobs Glasner is reported to have preferred have largely closed. Manchester United chose to continue with Michael Carrick after the interim spell. Chelsea moved for Xabi Alonso. Tottenham went for Roberto De Zerbi in March. The Premier League names that were floated alongside Glasner's in January are either off the board or attached to a manager who is not about to be sacked four games into the summer.
An Eintracht Frankfurt return has been ruled out at his end. That leaves a Bundesliga move with Leverkusen as the front-running scenario for a coach who is 51 and not in any rush.
The Palace exit on his terms
Whatever comes next, the optics of Wednesday night are kind to Glasner. He took a club that finished 15th in the Premier League this season to two major trophies in twelve months, won the second one on a free that was never going to be renewed, and handed his successor a Europa League draw to inherit.
The successor is the part nobody at Palace has volunteered. Names have been linked. Nothing has been announced. Glasner has played his part as cleanly as anyone could ask of an outgoing manager, and the rest of the questions are now for Steve Parish.
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