By John Kelly
NEW Crystal Palace head coach Pierre Sage said he had to “do the same” after he was confirmed as the replacement for the Eagles’ most successful ever boss, Oliver Glasner.
Frenchman Sage, 47, has signed a three-year deal at Selhurst Park and will officially begin work at the start of July.
Sage referenced Glasner in his first interview after the Eagles announced his appointment. Glasner led Palace to the FA Cup, Community Shield and Uefa Conference League, their first-ever major trophies.
Sage was named Ligue 1 manager of the year in 2025-26, ahead of Luis Enrique, who won the league and Champions League with Paris St-Germain.
Sage spent just twelve months at Lens but led them to a second-placed finish and Champions League qualification. Lens won the French Cup for the first time last season, only their second major trophy.
Before that, Sage was in charge of Lyon for fourteen months before being sacked by former Palace majority shareholder John Textor despite taking them from near the bottom of the table to sixth and qualification for the Europa League in 2023-24. Textor has since said he regretted the decision.
Sage will be joined in SE25 by Jamal Alioui, his assistant coach at Lens.
Sage’s appointment at Palace completes a remarkable rise to the Premier League. Ten years ago, he was an under-19 assistant coach at Annecy and up until 2019 he was working at semi-professional side Lyon-La Duchere.
Sage joined Lyon as a youth coach the same year before moving to Red Star to be an assistant manager.
He returned to Lyon to manage their academy before he was appointed interim boss to replace the sacked former Italy international Fabio Grosso in November 2023.
Sage was named the permanent boss and signed a new contract in the summer of 2024 but was sacked the following January after a run of poor results.
“It’s amazing to be here at Crystal Palace,” Sage said on the club’s official website. “I am excited by the history of the club, and by recent seasons. Oliver Glasner achieved some amazing things, and now I have to do the same. That’s why we come here with a lot of ambition.
“The dynamic here is really positive, and we are in this mindset too. We won last year, and we want to continue in this way, in a new club, a new project, but with a lot of winning habits.
“We want to give our best every day for the team, for the club, for the people, and especially for the fans, because when you love a club in England, it’s for all your life.
“We want to give the fans what they want. We want to make the fans smile, to be proud of the team, and to be proud of the club. So we will give our best for you – and we are together.”
Palace had also been linked with moves for former AFC Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola, Frank Lampard at Coventry City and Kieran McKenna, who left Ipswich Town earlier this month.
Eagles chairman Steve Parish said: “I am tremendously excited to welcome Pierre, who joins us off the back of a trophy-winning season at Lens as well as a fabulous second-place finish in Ligue 1.
“As we move into another European campaign off the back of our success in Leipzig, I know he will give everything to target more success for our fantastic football club.”
Last season, Sage played a similar formation to Glasner’s preferred one, with three centre-backs, wing-backs and two attacking midfielders supporting the main striker.
Sage has also played with a four-man defence and has been praised for his adaptability.
Sage has previously explained his football philosophy.
“What we’ll be focusing on most is how to impact the opponent when we have the ball, both by creating space for ourselves and by exploiting that space,” Sage said in an interview on the website Nosotros. “Defensively, our priority will be to win back possession. Therefore, the key areas of play in my playing philosophy, and consequently in my training sessions, are these two.
“There are two other aspects that must be present in the group I work with daily, and they are non-negotiable. First, there’s the desire to play with the ball, unlike those who play without it. Second, there’s the need to put in the effort when we don’t have the ball, to win it back quickly. This involves mental effort, physical effort, and so on. We must love having the ball and hate not having it.
“My convictions are based on three main points.
“When we have the ball, we must be able to create opportunities in the opposition’s half by building up a number of advantages in the game. This means advancing the ball cleanly, in order to exploit the various spaces we have created by manipulating the opposition. That’s the preparation of the game.
“Unbalance the opponent by constantly attacking the space behind them. The opponent must constantly feel threatened from behind. This principle is linked to the first, because if there is a constant threat from behind the opponent, even when we are trying to advance the ball, we will actually advance more quickly.
“Retrieve the ball as quickly as possible.”
Sage added: “When players come to training knowing they are going to play with the aim of nurturing something that gives them pleasure, something they are proud of, something where there is a form of accomplishment and a conviction in what they are doing that develops over time. I find that to be the best way to get them on board.”
