As he prepares to manage Crystal Palace for one last time – in the UEFA Conference League final – before leaving the club, Oliver Glasner has praised the support of his family and friends.
The coach moved to London to join the club in February 2024, leaving wife Bettina and his three children back home in Austria, with the two sets of family members regularly visiting each other.
And it was not just Glasner who moved; he was joined by assistant coaches Michael Angerschmid, Ronald Brunmayr and Emanuel Pogatetz plus fitness and conditioning coach Michael Berktold.
“We came together and cry together, but then the next day it's better,” joked Glasner about the sacrifices he and his coaching staff had made.
“But everybody decided for this. Nobody was forced to come to England. Everybody likes the job, everybody likes the club, everybody likes the environment, and everybody likes England as well.
“There are moments when you think; ‘Is it worth living 2,000 kilometres away, and being just a part-time, father and husband?’. We talking quite openly about it as a family. Sometimes, I feel I would like to be part of the family life more, but very often it’s FaceTime. We [are in] good times now, because at least you can see each other, but it's completely different if you sit next to each other at a table and talk, or if you talk via FaceTime or on the phone.
“You can ask maybe a doctor, or a surgeon, who has to work at the weekend when, maybe, his child has a birthday, but he's not there because there is an emergency or something and then he has to do his job, and he does,” added the coach.
“Then the next day, maybe he will sit at home, and think ‘I would have really been pleased if I could have celebrated my daughter's birthday’, for example, but my job was important. I didn't meet my 15-year-old daughter for four weeks. There’s a moment where you think it could be better, but I'm not complaining.”
Despite the distance between him and his family, Glasner will have more than his wife and children to see this week – he is expecting more than 20 members of his family, plus numerous friends from Austria, just a five-hour drive away.
And these opportunities to share his big, emotional moments with those close to him are what continues to drive the 51-year-old.
“My family will drive to Leipzig and they were also at the FA Cup final last year,” he explained. “My [two] boys travelled to Krakow (for the semi-final first leg against Shakhtar Donetsk) because it's just a 40-minute flight from Vienna where they live.
“Then, you share some moments together, and you say as a family, ‘Yes, it works, because these moments are so great’. I don't know if it's me, but I think for anybody experiencing a moment alone it’s quite boring, but sharing it with the ones you love, with your family, with your best friends, these make the moments even more special than they are.
“I am really looking forward to [the final], but even more when I know there will be more than 20 people from my family, and they're enjoying the atmosphere, they are excited and hoping that we can win. This is a great experience for us as a family and makes the game even more special.”
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