Ask any Palace supporter where they were when Mateta tucked that ball in against Rayo Vallecano. They will tell you without hesitation. Same goes for the FA Cup win last year, same for the Community Shield penalties against Liverpool back in August.
Three trophies in two years at a club that spent 120 years winning absolutely nothing is something no one believed would be possible. Whether you followed it from Leipzig, from the sofa, or through online football betting sites during the European run, this was a season Crystal Palace supporters will be telling people about for a very long time.
From Wembley to Leipzig
It started at Wembley in August. Palace beat Liverpool on penalties to win the Community Shield, which in isolation would have been a fine way to open a season. Coming a few months after the FA Cup win, it was something bigger. A statement that Oliver Glasner’s side were not planning on going quietly.
The Premier League told a messier story. Palace spent long stretches in mid-table, put together a decent run early on with wins over Aston Villa and Liverpool, but faded badly in the second half of the campaign when the Conference League became the clear priority. They finished 15th, six points clear of the bottom three. Not glamorous. Not what anyone involved will remember about the season.
What they will remember is Leipzig. May 2026, Rayo Vallecano in the Conference League final, Jean-Philippe Mateta tapping in the only goal from close range. Palace won 1-0. Third English club to lift the Conference League trophy. Ismaila Sarr, 21 goals across all competitions, was outstanding throughout the run, but it was Mateta’s moment in the final that every Palace supporter will carry with them.
Three trophies in two years. Still does not quite sink in.
Goodbye to Palace’s Greatest Manager
The difficult part of all this is that Glasner had already told everyone in January he was leaving at the end of the season. Two and a half years at Selhurst Park, two major trophies, a club completely transformed, and he announced his exit with half a campaign still to play.
What followed could have unravelled everything. It should have, by most accounts. Instead, the squad seemed to channel it. There was something about the Conference League run that felt like a group of players doing it specifically for their manager, and the scenes at full time in Leipzig said everything about what the relationship between Glasner and this group of players looked like.
The Austrian took a club that was having relegation conversations and turned them into European trophy winners. Probably the best manager Crystal Palace have ever had. Whatever he does next, that is a legacy that does not need defending.
26/27, What Next?
Andoni Iraola was the name linked most heavily to the vacant job, with reports suggesting a deal was close to being agreed. Sadly, after Liverpool announced Arne Slot’s sudden departure after failing to meet expectations on his second season at the club, it seems like the former Bournemouth manager will be managing at Anfield next season, with reporters such as Fabrizio Romano stating that the deal is very close.
And that’s where questions arise. Who will manage Palace? An established Premier League manager? Maybe a LaLiga manager? Or an overachiever from the lower leagues of English football? Although nobody knows, Palace must be quick, as the start of preseason is just a month away.
Mateta‘s situation is also worth mentioning. He tried to force a move to AC Milan in January, the medical failed, but the interest never really disappeared and with one year left on his contract this summer the situation points one way, especially if Mateta goes on a decent World Cup run with France.
Sarr and Wharton seem to be the foundations the new manager inherits, alongside a fanbase that now expects European nights as a matter of course rather than something to dream about. That is a remarkable shift for a club of Palace’s size and history.
2025/26 was the peak of something. How the club responds to losing Glasner and almost certainly Mateta in the same summer window will say a lot about where Crystal Palace stand now. The foundation is there. Whether it holds is the question.
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