‘Sometimes you have to be realistic’ – Oliver Glasner makes admission over Crystal Palace’s summer transfer window

Oliver Glasner has admitted that Crystal Palace could have done better in the summer transfer market. 

The Eagles boss also highlighted that clubs who finished around the Eagles last season all spent heavily to improve their squads, while the South Londoners banked a profit.

The Eagles sold Michael Olise, Jordan Ayew, Sam Johnstone and Joachim Andersen in the summer window with Eddie Nketiah, Maxence Lacroix, Ismaila Sarr, Daichi Kamada and Chadi Riad all being signed on permanent deals.

Glasner had to wait until deadline day to add Nketiah, who joined for a deal worth up to £30million from Arsenal, Chelsea loanee Trevoh Chalobah, defender Lacroix and season-long loan signing Matt Turner to his squad.

Palace have also equalled their worst record after eight games of a Premier League season, picking up just three points with draws with Manchester United, Leicester and Chelsea.

The South Londoners won six of their last seven games last season under Glasner and finished the campaign in the top 10 of the Premier League for the second time in their history.

When asked if the end to last season set unrealistic expectations heading into his first full season in charge, Glasner said: “We all expected a lot, but sometimes you have to be realistic. 

“But we don’t want to be realistic – we have big goals and we want to achieve a lot. We were 10th last season. Ninth was West Ham, who spent £140m net. Eighth was Man United and seventh was Newcastle.

“So to improve, we have to overtake one of them. But if you look back, Fulham was 12th and invested £50m net, and Brighton invested £180m net, so those are the clubs that are surrounding us on the table.

“We saved £20m net. 

“But at the end of last season, it was all positive – we had four players with England in Euro final, two players in the Copa America, one in the Olympic final.

“We all expected a lot from this season, so the more it hurts, to be honest.

“Maybe we lost a little bit of realism. 

“Now it’s about finding the right set-up for us between realism and pushing to the edge of the top of what we can achieve. It is clear what we achieved now [this season] is not what we expected, so we are below realism. 

“This is where we have to get back to, so it’s about keeping our belief alive.”

When asked if he felt let down with the investment in the squad, Glasner said: “It’s not a public discussion.

“I’ve already mentioned it several times before, we could have done better in the transfer window.

“With four signings on deadline day, it’s not how you wish a transfer window would work. No one says: ‘Yes, we will wait until deadline day and then sign four players two weeks after the Premier League has started and without [the signings having] any pre-season’.

“This is clearly what we should have done better. Everything else we have discussed, but in the end it was the club’s decision.”

MAIN PICTURE: PA