Oliver Glasner expresses pride in Palace’s ‘unique summer’

Four Palace players – Ebere Eze, Marc Guéhi, Dean Henderson and Adam Wharton – were involved in the England squad which reached the final of the European Championships; Jefferson Lerma and Daniel Muñoz were influential in Colombia reaching the final of the Copa America; and Jean-Philippe Mateta was second top-scorer as France reached the Gold Medal match at this summer’s Olympic Games.

Speaking on the eve of the new season, with the Eagles due to kick off 2024/25 at Brentford on Sunday, the manager said: “First of all, I think for Crystal Palace it has been a unique summer: three big finals in football, and in every single final, a Crystal Palace player is involved.

“I don’t know if this ever happened [before for the club] or it will happen, or if there are many other clubs in the world that have this, so it’s the biggest compliment a club like Crystal Palace can get, for the scouting, for the recruiting, and for the attitude of the players, that this happened this year.

“Of course, as a manager preparing for the next season, and if I just think what’s best for pre-season and the team, maybe we had to say to JP: ‘no, you don’t play for France.’ We could have said this but it’s always, for me, the human first, and if a football player has the opportunity to play for his country in the Olympic tournament, we decided this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance – ‘do it.’

“Yes, it made it a little bit more challenging for us in the pre-season, but I think the players invest so much for Crystal Palace, in their passion, their desire, so we are convinced that this at the end will help us during the long season, and that’s why we decided especially, for example for him and at the beginning Michael [Olise] as well, that they can play this tournament.

“For all the others, yes we always wanted our players [to do well]. It is like with your children – you want them to be successful, even if maybe that means that they are not at home for a longer time. We would like to have our players every day here, but if it means that they can be successful with the national team, we are really happy.”

Mateta’s five goals at the Olympic Games saw him continue his remarkable run of form for club and country: 19 goals in his last 19 games.

Glasner smiled: “JP is so confident with playing and scoring goals. He always gets into the [right] situation, and this is the best thing.

“Many ask me: ‘what did you do with JP Mateta?’ And I say: ‘no, he has the confidence now.’ This he showed at the Olympics. He scored goals there and very important goals for France, game-winning goals, and since he came back he shows it again.

“He’s always funny, he’s in a good mood, but working hard on the pitch so, yes, we are pleased that he’s back again.

“He’s also in a good mood in the dressing room because he’s such a nice guy, and he’s one of the first arriving in the morning, one of the last leaving so, yes, again, happy that the squad is together, all the players are fit.”

On Guéhi, whom multiple pundits highlighted as England’s player of the tournament, Glasner noted: “He did great for England. Fantastic performances. He’s very stable on a very high level.

“It’s not the one-hit wonder in one game at the Euros. All six games he played, he played at a very, very high standard. I was not surprised that he can play this because, of course, I watched him before.

“I was really surprised after his, I’d say, tough ending [to the season] because he was injured for many months and then playing this high rhythm at the highest level, I was really pleased seeing this and really, again, congrats to Marc that he could do it after the more than two months injury time.

“But I could see it at the end of the season, when he came back with us. Then we gave him the minutes, so that he’s also ready for the Euros, and he had good preparation for the Euros.

“He’s a competitor, he’s so hard-working every single day so we have to tell him, you know, it’s enough! It’s enough because he always wants to improve and this is great for a manager, it’s great for any team.”

Sunday could also see the return to action for Palace of Cheick Doucouré, whose last competitive appearance was against Luton Town in November.

“I’m very pleased that Cheick is back,” Glasner smiled. “He’s maybe also one new player for us because of his injury.

“It’s the same if you’re out for seven months – it takes a little bit to adapt to the intensity of training, and at the beginning it was always training in parts of the sessions. This we could increase, increase, increase, and I think since the last three weeks he’s doing every single session from the beginning until the end.

“He has no issues anymore, and then now we can see he develops his fantastic quality he has, but he will get the time to adapt and be ready because we ad a great midfield at the end of the season with Adam Wharton, with Will Hughes… Jeff Lerma is back and also played a fantastic Copa America with Colombia, scoring two goals for them.

“Daichi Kamada can also play this position, so we have many good options – that is why we are looking forward very positively to the start of the Premier League.”