REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
In winning the Premier League manager of the month award for September, Oliver Glasner became the first Crystal Palace gaffer to take the gong since Tony Pulis in April 2014. Of course, Pulis could justifiably claim to have done more to earn his gaudy Perspex commemorative cuboid with four wins and a defeat, compared to his modern-day equivalent’s paltry draw and two wins. However, the man famously commemorated in song for wearing the club shop of whoever he happened to be managing wasn’t subsequently presented with an award for Austria coach of the year at a posh ceremony in Vienna, almost certainly due in no small part to the fact that he is Welsh. “It’s too many awards for me, I don’t feel that important!” protested Glasner in an interview with the Crystal Palace socials team, after beating compatriots in the field of ski-jumping and volleyball to the Niki award, named in honour of a famous Austrian who won two world championships with Ferrari, back in the days when F1 was still good.
With the latest international break almost over and the bread-and-butter business of top-flight football due to return this weekend, Glasner’s side are preparing to face Bournemouth on Saturday in a Bigger Cup qualification six-pointer that absolutely nobody is pitching as the In-Demand Manager derby, even though that’s exactly what it is. With the currency of both Glasner and Andoni Iraola – his opposite number at the Vitality Stadium – currently higher than the thread count on a pharaoh’s bedsheet, their respective clubs are understandably desperate to keep them on board. As is always the case when head coaches at upper-mid-ranking top-flight sides demonstrate they have something about about them, there are always richer, more high-profile outfits at home and abroad eager to lure them away with the prospect of lucrative multi-million-pound payoffs six or eight months further down the line when it turns out they’re not quite so good after all.
Palace return from the international break having had a remarkable 19-match unbeaten run in all competitions come to a somewhat grisly end. A spell which included winning the FA Cup and Community Shield hit the skids when a late, late fluked winner from Jack Grealish dictated that, for the second time since 1969, Everton put an end to a record-breaking Palace streak. On the previous occasion, it was Joe Royle who stopped their 18-match flight with a penalty, after a foul on Jimmy Husband left the London side in trouble and strife. Against the Cherries on Saturday they face a different kind of bogey team, specifically one against whom they’ve failed to score against in any of their past four games. A win for AFC Bournemouth will take them to the dizzy heights of first in a table they normally only controversially top on alphabetical order during the off-season. Should Palace prevail, they’ll finish the day no lower than third and possibly higher, a considerable improvement on this time last season when they had the princely total of three points from their opening eight games and Glasner seemed more likely to be presented with his P45 than any of his subsequent awards.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join Yara El-Shaboury from 5.45pm BST for minute-by-minute updates from Atlético Madrid 1-2 Manchester United in Women’s Bigger Cup, while Rob Smyth will be on deck for Benfica 1-1 Arsenal at 8pm.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I know I’m trying something special. Maybe it’s the most difficult recovery in history. If I manage to come back it’ll be more than 1,000 days. But I’m a guy who takes care of himself and I think I can do it. If there’s one guy to do it, it’s me” – Gerard Deulofeu opens up to Nick Ames about his battle to play again.
For goodness sake, stop all the faffing around. Give the Geopolitics World Cup (and the Sherpa Van Trophy, and everything else) to Trump, and say it’s done. No need to worry about the heat, who’s on The Plane, who’s left on the tarmac, whose metatarsal is hurting, and all the rest of it. Just do it and we can get on with our lives” – Robert Pearce.
As someone in the construction industry, it comes as absolutely no surprise that architects are pretentious and know nothing whatsoever about what makes a good football stadium, or to use Big Website’s words, ‘football stadiums do have an otherworldly aura, as modern colossi looming above huddled neighbourhoods, evocative of Philip Larkin’s “ships up streets”’. However, what completely threw me in the article was the description of Forest Green Rovers as being ‘currently managed by former bad boy Robbie Savage’” – Noble Francis.
Re: Sensible Soccer or Kick Off 2 (yesterday’s last line, full email edition). If you listen to your colleague Max ‘I’ve already got a podcast’ Rushden’s, ahem, other podcast, you would know that Emlyn Hughes International Soccer is currently the hipsters’ choice. But seriously, it’s Sensi, natch” – David Bell.
If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … David Bell. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we have them, are here.
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