3 months ago
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Crystal Palace supporters had all waited a lifetime for this moment. When the two buses carrying Oliver Glasner and his FA Cup winners rounded the corner of Holmesdale Road, red and blue smoke from flares filled the air as thousands of south Londoners showed their appreciation, with several shedding tears again.
In the days since Eberechi Eze’s winner against Manchester City clinched Palace’s first trophy, a sense of disbelief has been the overwhelming feeling for fans who are excitedly contemplating a first foray into Europe next season. “This has been the best week of my life to share this with all these guys,” said an emotional chair, Steve Parish. “Our fans are our superpower – that is what we’ve got that drives us forward.”
Ambitious plans to host the parade in Crystal Palace Park – the club’s former home and where the Cup final itself was played between 1895 and 1914 – had failed to come to fruition despite several days of discussions with local stakeholders. Croydon council’s chief executive even denied rumours that it had demanded £200,000 to host the celebrations in the borough, while neighbouring Bromley council revealed that it had suggested a parade from the training ground in Beckenham via the park and then the stadium but Palace “did not feel able to proceed in the time available with their ideas, given concerns raised by a range of organisations”.
The result was a slimmed down route that you could usually walk in about five minutes but it took Joel Ward, Marc Guéhi and co the best part of an hour to complete. Even a downpour of rain as the buses made their way along Whitehorse Lane couldn’t dampen the spirits, with 7,000 supporters then piling on to the pitch at Selhurst Park to continue the celebrations that included a DJ set from Sister Bliss from Faithless, whose singer Maxi Jaxx was a vice-president at Palace before his death in 2022.
“I’ve been dancing all day,” the French striker Jean-Philippe Mateta said when he was called up onstage to collect his goal of the season award for his lob against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
With planning permission having been granted last summer for a new stand that would take the stadium’s capacity to 34,000, work was expected to finally begin in the coming weeks but spiralling costs have caused further delays. It is estimated they could reach up to £240m, while uncertainty over the club’s ownership is another hurdle that Parish must resolve. But holding on to Glasner, whose contract expires at the end of next season, will be his main priority, not to mention a number of players who are coveted by bigger clubs including Guéhi, Mateta and Wembley hero Eze.
“We couldn’t hope for a better group,” Parish said when he addressed the exultant crowd on the pitch after the parade. “To smash through the glass ceiling for this football club and finally win something – their names will go down in history. They will always be loved here.”
Asked what Glasner has done for Palace since taking over from Roy Hodgson as manager last February, he said: “Oliver doesn’t like coming second! Winning is a drug and I don’t see any reason at all why we can’t go and do it again. We need to deliver for the manager in the close season and the fans.”
The Austrian has made a habit of winning trophies wherever he has been and has seemed to take Palace’s victory in his stride despite allowing himself to let his hair down on a staff trip to Ibiza after their win over Wolves in midweek.
Glasner showed his ruthless side during the final match of the season against Liverpool on Sunday when he substituted Romain Esse after the £12m January signing from Millwall had been brought on as a replacement and criticised his attitude. He was in far more relaxed mood on Monday and stressed the importance of maintaining their progress next season.
“Today is a good moment to talk about [our achievements]. Yesterday after the game maybe not,” he said. “I couldn’t be more pleased to work with a group of players like they are. Not just because of their talent, they are great talents, but especially what great characters they are. It’s very exciting, and we all will enjoy this journey, playing the Premier League, playing the Carabao Cup, playing the FA Cup and playing the Europa League. Four competitions, four titles to win, let’s go for every single one.”
