More than a coach - at 36 he was fighting for his life, now he gives lessons to Guardiola and Sloto, and gives his players complete freedom

While Oliver Glasner sprinted along the touchline like Jurgen Klopp to celebrate the winning goal against Liverpool, for anyone who follows the Premier League, such a result and the fact that Crystal Palace is the only undefeated team in the championship could not have been a surprise.

Even though this is a club that has turned 120 years old and until the last few months has not known what it feels like to lift any kind of trophy.

Everything at Selhurst Park changed with the arrival of the "brilliant mind" from Austria - Glasner started building and then writing history from day one. At the end of last season and the beginning of this one, he gave lessons to Pep Guardiola and Arne Slot, the coach of the champion Liverpool, and he also celebrated against all the teams of the "big six".

He gave Palace's great fans a joy they had never felt before, as he first brought the FA Cup trophy to south London, and then the Community Shield.

Now, after six rounds of the Premier League, he is "smiling" from second place in the table, and his team has not lost in 18 games.

Solid defender, top coach

The coaching career of the expert from Scherding, right on the border with Germany, has been on an upward trajectory since the very first days, after he fought for his life in the summer of 2011.

Glasner, otherwise a solid defender for the Austrian club Ried, where he spent practically his entire playing career, suffered a blow and a cut above his eye at the end of July of that year - it seemed nothing serious, so he traveled with the team to the Europa League match against Brondby.

And then there were moments of fear at Reed's training - Glasner collapsed, and in the hospital in Copenhagen a hematoma was discovered on his brain, which led to emergency surgery.

He later revealed that he didn't remember anything related to those days, but it was a sign that it was time to end his career - just a few days before his 37th birthday.

One solid story has ended, and a new one has been born - Glasner will quickly grow into a top coach.

Started at Red Bull, King of Frankfurt and Architect in London

Peter Vogl, then general manager of Red Bull Salzburg and honorary president of Reid, brought Glasner to the richest and, in the new era, the best Austrian club just a few months later - to be his assistant and sports coordinator.

Soon, at the invitation of another great Austrian expert, Ralf Rangnick, he became assistant coach to Roger Schmidt.

He didn't stay long in "Mozart's" city, as he set out to carve out a solo career. He managed Ried and LASK in his homeland, and then opened the doors to the Bundesliga.

He showed how tactically gifted and, above all, flexible he is first in Wolfsburg, and then he became the king of Frankfurt. Although he did not start as expected at Eintracht, as he did not win any of the first eight matches, he soon established a system and everything became much easier.

He scored his first victory, no less, against Bayern, and crowned it all by winning the Europa League with the "eagles" in 2022.

The German media in those years were particularly impressed by one thing about him - it was written at the time that Glasner did not ask for his players to be checked, that he did not send people to be in their hotel rooms in the morning.

"I believe that as adults they know when they need to stand up and be in the right place," Glasner explained.

For him, the players' trust is the most important thing.

"You can't fool them, they'll always sense if you're trying to be something you're not. That's why I want them to trust me, as I trust them. There's no need for me to control everything."

Somewhat quietly after that, in February 2024, he arrived in London and in just over a year was the architect of one of the most beautiful stories ever in English football.

He made Jean-Philippe Mateta a hell of a goal scorer, Adam Wharton one of the best midfielders in the Premier League, and he also showed his authority when he stopped the departure of England national team defender Mark Gaye, who was already recording a farewell message for the London club's fans and was preparing to put on the Liverpool jersey.

Little Palace has thus become a serious club in English football, and Glasner continues to work miracles - even when the club from Selhurst Park is left without players like Michael Oliseh or Eberechi Eze.