CRYSTAL Palace boss Oliver Glasner sees a bright future for the club – and not only because the squad have been enjoying a late-season break in sunny Spain.
Glasner took his players and staff to Marbella during the international window where they have been preparing for the last leg of the Premier League season.
Palace are still not out of relegation danger as they sit eight points above the bottom three with ten games left.
Glasner has won one, lost one and drawn one of his three games in charge. It would have been six points from three games had the Eagles not conceded in the 96th minute in the 1-1 draw against Luton Town.
Glasner has waxed lyrical about his time at the club so far.
“Very good, really. It was, of course, a busy time, but I’ve had great support from everybody in the club, in the staff. The players are really open-minded and great characters,” Glasner said on the club’s official website.
“And everywhere, the club does everything to support us. It starts with transport from the hotel to the training ground and everything, and then also with family visits at the weekends for games. So I have to say ‘thank you’ to all the guys in the club for the big support.
“I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve enjoyed the time with the players. I’ve enjoyed the time with the staff.
“I’ve enjoyed the time at Selhurst with our fans. And I’ve enjoyed the time in south London, because I really found a lot of great characters and very nice guys.
“The attitude of the players to listen, to try to improve and also change something, I like it a lot, and it was a good start for us.
“Of course, the draw against Luton still hurts a little bit, with the goal in the last fifteen or 20 seconds. But sometimes you also need to fail so that you can improve again.
“And in this situation, we can also learn a lot from it. All our experiences help us to grow as a group, to grow as a club – and this is what we want to do.
“We are on a good way, a good pathway, but we’re still at the beginning.
“We can see some, let’s say, improvements, but also some changes. This is how we’ve started, but it’s not possible to have a lot of changes that work in two or three weeks. But the basement is here.
“The character of the players, the quality of the players, the talent of the players, the staff that is supporting me and us every minute of the day. And also a club, like Crystal Palace, who said: ‘OK, we want to change something.’
“This is what we have now started to do together, and I’m really looking forward to the next weeks and months.”
Glasner reflected on the training camp in Spain.
He said: “We’ve had perfect conditions: a great pitch, the players are working really hard and very well, and with it, what’s important, there’s a very good mood in training and also in the hotel. In the first place, I’m very happy with everything.
“In the game against Bodø/Glimt, it is also important for us to show, in an international game, what we are doing in training.
“But at the moment, I’m really happy with everything here in Spain.”
Glasner added: “It’s nothing to do with England! It’s just, you know, there’s three weeks with no games, and sometimes, three weeks of [being] every day at the training ground, knowing that there is no game on the weekend, is a long time.
“So it’s good to have a change, not just in the environment. We are also here with the opportunity to spend a lot of time together, not just arriving in the morning and leaving after training like it would be in England. We’re also having dinner together, having meetings, talking to each other – we have here 24 hours a day.
“And this is also important for us to get us known personally in the group, and understanding each other.”
