Nottingham Forest could deepen Palace feud with Glasner approach

Oliver Glasner continues to work his magic at Crystal Palace while Nottingham Forest have a ‘spectacular’ manager problem; a solution might have emerged.

If Evangelos Marinakis has not already sifted through his emails – chuckling at all UEFA-based correspondence over the past few months in the process – to find a prior point of contact for Oliver Glasner, he must up his game as the sport’s emerging arch-villain.

It would represent another strike in their bitter feud with Crystal Palace, which given the perennial needle that defined these 90 antagonistic minutes at Selhurst Park cannot be ruled out in and of itself as a reason to do something so drastic.

But perhaps of slightly more importance, it would be a potentially high-yielding solution to a pair of curiously self-inflicted problems.

In a different world, the habitual propensity of Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace to take aim at their feet and repeatedly pull the trigger even when enjoying a degree of success either unprecedented for generations or in their club’s entire history might bring these fanbases closer together.

The reality is that Nottingham Forest building their best team in decades and Crystal Palace winning more trophies in the last 100 days than they had in the previous 119 years has put both on an inexorable and resentful collision course.

And if Forest capitalise on the public frustrations Glasner has voiced at the hand he has been dealt by Palace, offering the Austrian a role they considered him for after sacking Steve Cooper almost two years ago, those hostilities could boil over.

Yet it makes more than a modicum of sense. There is not a single better-coached Premier League team pound-for-pound than the FA Cup winners, who were the better side here even a day after selling their star player and with Odsonne Edouard making his first Premier League appearance for the Eagles in exactly a year – which was largely spent not playing on loan at relegated Leicester.

Glasner knows Palace “could have behaved much better than we did” in the transfer market, that “we have to act” and “it’s not the best way to start the season”; it echoes his complaints last season and the warnings aired at the end of the campaign.

He is also acutely aware that the sale of captain Marc Guehi remains eminently likely as Palace continue to weaken themselves from a position of surprise strength.

But this has been no shock to many a fan, who will be thankful for the sensibilities of Steve Parish that they even have a club to support, while sharing the frustrations of a coach who just wants to see some ambition shown.

It worked with Roy Hodgson, a man whose approach installed a floor and ceiling to what Palace could achieve regardless of what squad he was given. But even if he could secure survival on rations, placing those same limitations on the boundless possibilities offered by Glasner is bizarre.

With Justin Devenny as a left-sided forward backed up by a half-fit Tyrick Mitchell and almost zero attacking options in the squad beyond the exciting but entirely unproven Romain Esse, Palace held their own.

More than that, in fact. The goal was wonderful, a combination of Will Hughes, Adam Wharton and Daniel Munoz providing time and space for Ismaila Sarr to swipe the ball past Matz Sels as half time approached.

That quick ball from Wharton out to Munoz proved particularly difficult for Forest to handle and had the final delivery been up to standard often enough, Jean-Philippe Mateta might have feasted.

The attacking depth of Forest eventually swung the game back in something closer to their favour and the assist from Dan Ndoye for Callum Hudson-Odoi’s clever shift of feet and finish was sublime. Many will not have been familiar with the Switzerland winger’s game but that underlined the sort of individual quality Forest have added this season.

Their five substitutes cost almost as much as Palace’s starting line-up, and two of the first three were more expensive than Palace’s record signing.

That affords the sort of brilliance present in that Ndoye pass, or even the Igor Jesus effort which almost snatched victory in stoppage time before hitting the crossbar.

But Nuno is no less exasperated with his situation. The harmony and unity which encapsulates Forest on the pitch contradicts the warring off it, with a ‘spectacular fallout’ between the coach and the owner’s newest ally proving ‘potentially irreparable’.

All parties seem willing to try and make it work for the good of what Marinakis widely considers to be his family and it is yet to impact performances or results. But the second it does, a spiteful divorce feels inevitable.

And timing is everything; if the axe falls on Nuno soon as seems certain, Palace’s latest wasteful summer might place the Portuguese’s perfect replacement into their laps once the window closes. Glasner is the sort of managerial talent which deserves to be backed properly instead of being exploited and taken for granted.