Category: Football (Soccer)

Eberechi Eze is too good for Palace, Morgan Gibbs-White is pushing for a call-up and is 2025 the year of the underdog?

Why would your fan-favourite player, scorer of That Historic Wembley Goal, in peak form under an excellent manager want to leave? Why would anyone be OK with it? How is this logical? Crystal Palace are now good enough to have Eberechi Eze in the team. Eberechi Eze is also too good to stay at Crystal Palace. Both of these things seem to be true. Oliver Glasner-era Palace are a seriously potent, organised and attractive team. But Eze’s progress is something else. At times during his early Palace career there was a sense of a slightly loose late-developer. His skill level was always exceptional. His use of it now is next-level, his finishing cold and his physique buffed up. Eze does not really have a ceiling. He could play for any team in Europe. But he is also 26 years old with two years left on his contract, and Palace have a model based on development with the likes of Romain Esse ready for a shot. There does not always have to be downside. Selling the man who made the thing happen can still be best for everyone. Barney Ronay

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• Co-owner Steve Parish fends off interest from rival clubs
• Marc Guéhi out of hospital after checks on eye injury

Steve Parish has made it clear that his FA Cup-winning manager, Oliver Glasner, will be at Crystal Palace next season. Tottenham are prominent among Glasner’s admirers and they will put him on their shortlist if they decide to part company with Ange Postecoglou at the end of the season. Bayer Leverkusen and RB Leipzig are also interested in the man who led Palace past Manchester City at Wembley on Saturday to the club’s first major trophy.

Parish, the Palace chair and co-owner, said he wanted to extend Glasner’s contract, which is scheduled to expire in June 2026. As Parish continued to savour the cup win that will bring Europa League football to Selhurst Park next season, materially changing his club as a proposition, he essentially told those who might try to lure Glasner away that they were wasting their time.

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There was a sense of disbelief at Wembley as the team I support ended a wait of almost 120 years to win a major trophy

When Marc Guéhi and Joel Ward went up to collect the FA Cup, we were there. Although it still seems like a dream. The sense of disbelief Crystal Palace supporters felt when the full-time whistle at Wembley ended their wait to win a major trophy will probably take a few more days to fade away given it’s taken almost 120 years to become a reality. But with most of the 30,000 wearing red and blue having travelled from south London in hope rather than expectation, finally, it was our moment.

After an agonising 10 minutes of stoppage time that seemed to take an eternity, the emotions of defeat in Palace’s two previous FA Cup finals came pouring out. Everywhere you looked there were grown men – including me and the former Guardian stalwart Dominic Fifield – moved to tears. The comedian Mark Steel just kept shaking his head, unable to comprehend what had just transpired. It even spread to the royal box, where the chair, Steve Parish, who had been pictured with his head in his hands moments earlier, was greeted with a bear hug from Palace’s largest shareholder, John Textor.

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Eberechi Eze scored a fine winner and Dean Henderson – who might have been sent off earlier – saved a penalty on a famous day for Palace

Oliver Glasner’s pre-match thoughts

It’s a special moment for all of us and we’re really looking forward to the game.

We expect City to have more of the ball, as they do against most teams, especially as they have picked a very attacking line-up. It’s a little bit similar to how Villa played, with lots of attacking players, but that gives you space for transitions. That’s what we need to wait for. We have to be very efficient when we get chances.

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• All the buildup to the FA Cup final, 4.30pm kick-off
• Share your thoughts with matchday live or post BTL

Chat over. Will Hughes strolls across the car park to get some photographs taken. As it happens, the man emerging from the gym at that very moment is the Crystal Palace midfield partner whose praises Hughes has just been lavishly exalting.

“Just added about £20m to your fee in that interview,” Hughes shouts at Adam Wharton as they pass. “You can have half,” Wharton retorts. All delivered with a knowing smile, for this is the Palace of Oliver Glasner, where – as Hughes puts it – “there’s egos, but good egos”. No arrogance, none of the blame culture he sees elsewhere. “You watch other teams and hands are in the air, there’s moaning,” he says. “But I honestly don’t see any of that here.”

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