Oliver Glasner might be leaving Crystal Palace this summer, but he’s leaving the club in pretty good nick.
This has been a tricky campaign, but it was always going to be difficult to replicate the success of 2024/25, when the odds were turned on their head and Crystal Palace defeated Manchester City to lift the FA Cup, then beat Liverpool in August’s Community Shield.
However, the Eagles face AEK Larnaca in the last 16 of the Conference League, and they are among the favourites to lift that trophy.
This is unlike anything that Selhurst Park has seen before, and Glasner has overseen the rise of more than a few superstars since joining the Londoners in February 2024.
Glasner’s biggest stars at Crystal Palace
It’s been a difficult campaign, but Crystal Palace are starting to find form in the Premier League once again, escaping the outskirts of a relegation battle and instead pushing for a Europe-qualifying spot.
And that’s having sold captain Marc Guehi to Manchester City in January, the Three Lions star entering the final stretch of a contract he had no interest in renewing.
The Eagles have been knocked by his departure, but they still have Maxence Lacroix, and Jaydee Canvot looks like a real future star at centre-back.
They have endured, as they did when Eberechi Eze was sold to Arsenal for £67m last summer, having won Palace the FA Cup with the winning goal in the final.
Eze was good. Really good. And now immortal at Selhurst Park. But Eze wasn’t quite as good as Michael Olise, who missed out on title-winning celebrations in south London after moving to Bayern Munich one year before.
Who could blame him? The France international was a maverick at Palace but he has now become “one of the best players in the world“, as journalist Henry Swain said he would in 2024.
Glasner and chairman Steve Parish would have liked to have kept Olise on for longer, but some players have to play at the very highest level, invariably challenging for the biggest prizes.
Now, Glasner has found another such talent.
Glasner has found the new Michael Olise
Olise, 24, grew into a superstar at Selhurst Park, arriving from Reading in the Championship and going on to become one of the Premier League’s most dangerous attacking midfielders.
Now, Adam Wharton is becoming the outfit’s new version.
The England midfielder has only been at the club for two years, joining from Blackburn Rovers for around £18m in January 2024. Now, 22-year-old is renowned for his passing and maturity in the centre of the park, his ability on the ball even seeing him lauded as a “cheat code” on the ball by analyst and scout Ben Mattinson.
Having been carried from the EFL into the top flight in a similar way to Olise, Glasner might just have found his new version of the French phenom. Positionally, they are not alike, but there are similarities and Wharton becomes more talismanic by the matchweek.
He’s never scored in the Premier League, but then that’s not his wheelhouse. Wharton is a maestro, deep-lying and deeply influencing Palace’s offensive sequences.
The top clubs are all keen (as they were with Olise). The Eagles hierarchy has responded by listing him at £100m, though, with his world-class potential demanding a world-class price tag.
Last season, injuries precluded significant development in the Premier League. But even so, Wharton has come on leaps and bounds this year, more precise in his creative passing without shirking the defensive qualities that make him such an impressive all-action midfielder.
|
Adam Wharton’s Premier League Development |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Stats (* per 90) |
24/25 |
25/26 |
|
Matches (starts) |
20 (16) |
26 (26) |
|
Goals + Assists |
0 + 2 |
0 + 5 |
|
Touches* |
45.7 |
53.9 |
|
Accurate passes* |
26.7 (79%) |
31.0 (79%) |
|
Possession lost* |
10.8 |
12.7 |
|
Big chances created |
5 |
11 |
|
Key passes* |
1.3 |
1.2 |
|
Succ. dribbles* |
0.1 |
0.4 |
|
Ball recoveries* |
5.1 |
5.1 |
|
Tackles + interceptions* |
2.7 |
3.2 |
|
Clearances* |
1.4 |
1.3 |
|
Duels won* |
3.2 (46%) |
4.6 (50%) |
Wharton is the real deal, and while Parish and all of a Palace persuasion would hope he stays put for many years to come, the likelihood is that elite suitors will come flocking in each and every transfer window until something finally gives.
It will be a rueful day, but the £100m-rated midfielder is bound to become a record-breaking sale, so while he will surely mimic Olise, it will stand as another glowing endorsement of just how far this squad have come.
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