At some stage OG will leave . Who next

OffTheFence said:
We have to get someone who can build on the style that OG has implemented, and I don’t think the ‘usual candidates’ mentioned are likely to do that.
Recently, PL clubs are been successful in picking out relatively unknown managers from around Europe so I’d be surprised if we don’t go down that route.

I asked ChatGPT to evaluate tactical pref, coaching style and personality and it came out with.


Urs Fischer
  • Tactics: Back three master (3-5-2/3-4-1-2), compact, transition-heavy, resilient squads.
  • Method: Drill-heavy, system-first, builds cohesion and gets peak performance from modest squads (Union Berlin, Basel).
  • Personality: Understated and calm, but firm; decisive when players don’t buy in.
  • Why he’s closest: Fischer mirrors Glasner’s balance of order, efficiency, psychological management, and ruthless decisiveness — and, like Glasner, thrives with underdog squads against richer opponents.
Very Strong Secondary Matches
  • Adi Hütter – Same Austrian school, similar tactical blueprint (pressing + verticality, flexible 3/4 at the back), equally ruthless, but a bit more fiery and less subtle in psychology.
  • Sebastian Hoeneß (up-and-coming) – Shares Glasner’s analytical calm, squad development focus, and structural clarity. Still growing his ruthless edge, but stylistically and personally a “next-gen Glasner.”
  • Julen Lopetegui – Organised, methodical, detail-heavy prep; has Glasner’s balance of empathy and firmness. Tactically prefers a back four, but otherwise very similar.
✅ Final call:

If you want the closest like-for-like Glasner profile, it’s Urs Fischer.

If you want a younger version in development, it’s Sebastian Hoeneß.

If you want a slightly more aggressive personality but same framework, it’s Adi Hütter.


Fischer and hasn’t worked since Nov 23 when he left Union Berlin, where he’d been for 5 years and taken them from 2.Bundesliga to qualifying for the Champions league in 5 years! Available, rested and, by all accounts, a carbon copy of Glasner.
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Great post! I was thinking there must be a Glasner mk2 out there who can pick up what is a talented squad and a well organised team and build on the success we’ve enjoyed. I like the sound of Fischer.
Perhaps as important as finding a replacement for Ollie is the need for them to work well with the director of football. The wheels started to come off when Dougie left. He did a great job in identifying good young prospects and bringing them in. He and Ollie felt like the dream team, leaving Parish to look at the bigger picture in terms of growing the club and improving the stadium. Parish has had to shoulder too much of the burden since Dougie bailed out culminating in the events of last month. It remains to be seen whether the new guy can build a strong relationship with Ollie and working with our new CEO convince him that things will improve and he should stay. At the moment it seems like a long shot.
 
Palacesince64 said:
Great post! I was thinking there must be a Glasner mk2 out there who can pick up what is a talented squad and a well organised team and build on the success we’ve enjoyed. I like the sound of Fischer.
Perhaps as important as finding a replacement for Ollie is the need for them to work well with the director of football. The wheels started to come off when Dougie left. He did a great job in identifying good young prospects and bringing them in. He and Ollie felt like the dream team, leaving Parish to look at the bigger picture in terms of growing the club and improving the stadium. Parish has had to shoulder too much of the burden since Dougie bailed out culminating in the events of last month. It remains to be seen whether the new guy can build a strong relationship with Ollie and working with our new CEO convince him that things will improve and he should stay. At the moment it seems like a long shot.
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What would be Fischer's Price?
 
pssguy said:
Let's hope Parish has heard of AI though, given his knowledge of email, I rather doubt it. Having said that I tried a few other LLMs and Southgate's name popped up. McKenna and Rosenior got mentions and the argument against Fischer was that he finished his spell at Union Berlin with a 14 match winless spell - ironically exactly opposite our 14 game lossless run
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So… I then asked for a review of UBs transfer business across the two 2023 windows (his last two before things went south)…. It looks like they fell into the age old trap of bringing in too many new players in one window to make the step up.
I honestly can’t see that ever happening at Palace, Parish is far too pragmatic for that, which, to me, isn’t a bad thing at all.

How Union Berlin’s January 2023 quiet and summer 2023 splurge helped unravel Urs Fischer’s final year

Urs Fischer built Union Berlin into a Bundesliga success story — promotion, steady top-half finishes and a shock fourth-place that sent the Köpenickers into the Champions League. But between a cautious January 2023 and a headline-grabbing summer 2023 recruitment drive, the club changed the fabric of its squad: bigger wage commitments, a higher turnover of players, a mash-up of elder statesmen and raw prospects — and the on-pitch consequences would be brutal enough to help end Fischer’s five-year reign. This is a window-by-window forensic on what they did, what changed (age, wages, squad cohesion) and why those choices mattered when results collapsed in autumn 2023.

January 2023 — small, sensible tinkering

Union’s winter 2022/23 window was modest. The marquee move was making left-back Jérôme Roussillon’s switch permanent in mid-January 2023 — a low-risk signing of an already integrated squad member rather than a disruptive splash. That winter Union largely kept faith with the group that was pushing for Europe, and it paid off on the pitch: Union finished the 2022–23 Bundesliga campaign in the top four.

Why it mattered: the club preserved team cohesion. Minimal mid-season turnover helped Fischer sustain momentum and achieve the club’s historic Champions League qualification.

Summer 2023 — a statement window (and a gamble)

When the summer 2023 window opened, everything changed. Union spent heavily and signed an eclectic mix:
  • High-profile veterans: Robin Gosens (from Inter, reported big fee), Kevin Volland (Monaco), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus, a late deadline signing) — names with international cachet and correspondingly higher wage demands.
  • Younger talent / prospects: Mikkel Kaufmann (Copenhagen), Benedict Hollerbach (Wehen Wiesbaden), Aljoscha Kemlein promoted, plus loans such as Brenden Aaronson and David Datro Fofana.
  • Reinforcements across the spine: Diogo Leite, Lucas Tousart, Alexander Schwolow and Lennart Grill (loan) gave depth for Champions League and a congested schedule.
That recruitment drive was explicit: the club wanted to compete in Europe and the Bundesliga, and the signings were both a sporting and PR statement. But the squad the management assembled was dramatically less like the tight, familiar unit that had overachieved in 2022–23 and more like a rebuilt team trying to find identity fast.

Numbers: age, turnover and wages

Two measurable changes stand out.

Average age / profile: Transfer lists for the 2023 window show a mixed age profile. Several incoming players were young (average age of arrivals listed ~24.3), but the summer also included older internationals (Bonucci 36, Volland 31, Gosens 29). The net effect was a broader spread of ages and experience — more senior personalities plus raw youngsters — which can be hard to blend quickly. (Transfermarkt seasonal transfer list; arrivals with ages shown).

Wage bill: independent payroll databases estimate a substantial jump in Union’s wage bill from the 2022–23 season to 2023–24. Capology’s payroll estimates put Union’s 2022–23 gross payroll at roughly €26.4m and the 2023–24 figure at about €37.7m — an increase consistent with signing more established internationals and paying higher base salaries and guaranteed fees. Those are estimates, but they illustrate the scale of the club’s financial step up.

Why those figures matter: an increased wage structure changes expectations at the club (shorter patience for poor runs), reduces flexibility if heavy earners don’t deliver, and raises the cost of correcting mistakes (you can’t quickly unwind long contracts without accepting losses).

The on-pitch fallout: crowded squad, fatigue, injuries and little time to gel

Three sport-specific dynamics turned Union’s recruiting headache into a results crisis:
  1. Champions League demands + domestic schedule: playing European group matches stretched a squad that — despite depth on paper — hadn’t played together enough to absorb rotation without a drop in performance. Union’s domestic form suffered as a result.
  2. Injuries and underwhelming integration: several signings and key players missed time through knocks and operations (reported problems with Kevin Volland’s knee, Roussillon and others at various points), reducing the chance for consistent selection and chemistry. New signings like Bonucci and Volland offered experience but required adaptation time and fitness management.
  3. A mixed recruitment profile → cohesion problems: the summer window produced a group that contained both headline veterans and hopeful youngsters. On the surface that’s sensible — experience to short-circuit matches and youth to build on — but when the experienced players didn’t consistently perform (or were unavailable), the balance tipped. Analysts and club observers later described the window as “statement” signings that didn’t deliver the anticipated step-up.
The result was a slide in the league and an awful run across competitions: a poor Bundesliga campaign (15th in 2023–24 per season summary) and a long winless spell that piled pressure on the coach.

Urs Fischer’s exit — a tipping point, not a single cause

Urs Fischer’s departure on 15 November 2023 followed a 14-game winless run in all competitions and came after mounting pressure from poor results rather than a single tactical failure. But the recruitment choices in summer 2023 — bigger wage commitments, squad churn, and a patchwork of players who arrived late or struggled with fitness — were contributing factors: they left Fischer to manage a much larger, less-cohesive group while also juggling Champions League fixtures and injuries. The club and the coach ultimately agreed to part ways.

Important nuance: Fischer deserves enormous credit for Union’s rise. The transfer strategy wasn’t solely to blame — European fatigue, fixture congestion, individual form dips and plain bad luck (injuries) all intersected. But sporting directors and the board also bear responsibility for constructing a squad that required immediate cohesion and, in financial terms, committed the club to higher fixed costs without guaranteed on-field returns. Those two realities combined to shorten Fischer’s leash.

Verdict — what worked, what didn’t, and the lessons
  • What worked: January 2023 proved that modest, surgical signings that preserve team shape can sustain momentum; Union’s 2022–23 overachievement came from continuity.
  • What failed: the summer 2023 window bought profile and depth but not guaranteed cohesion. Late additions, older players needing minutes to find form, and a heavier wage bill all made the squad harder to manage midseason — and expensive to correct.
  • Lessons for the club: match recruitment to realistic sporting targets (European adventure requires planning for rotation and chemistry), stagger big signings so they can bed in, and consider contract structure that mitigates long-term wage risk if the signings don’t pay off immediately.
Final thought

Union’s 2023 was the story of a club at a crossroads: a deserved Champions League debut and the temptation (and financial muscle) to sprint for the next plateau. The resulting summer window was a gamble — one that altered the squad’s make-up, lifted the wage bill and, when results went south, reduced the club’s margin for error. Urs Fischer paid the price for a season where ambition outpaced assimilation. The ambitious moves weren’t incomprehensible; they were rational in the moment — but football is as much about timing and culture as it is about names on a contract. Union’s 2023 windows teach that lesson the hard way.
 
Palacesince64 said:
Great post! I was thinking there must be a Glasner mk2 out there who can pick up what is a talented squad and a well organised team and build on the success we’ve enjoyed. I like the sound of Fischer.
Perhaps as important as finding a replacement for Ollie is the need for them to work well with the director of football. The wheels started to come off when Dougie left. He did a great job in identifying good young prospects and bringing them in. He and Ollie felt like the dream team, leaving Parish to look at the bigger picture in terms of growing the club and improving the stadium. Parish has had to shoulder too much of the burden since Dougie bailed out culminating in the events of last month. It remains to be seen whether the new guy can build a strong relationship with Ollie and working with our new CEO convince him that things will improve and he should stay. At the moment it seems like a long shot.
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Thanks! I’ve been using ai a lot recently am starting to get my head around how to write prompts.

If anyone is interested, an good place to start is to ask ChatGPT to write its own prompt, ie:

“I’m looking to do some research on possible replacement managers if OG were to leave at the end of his contract / summer 26. Please suggest a prompt that will create a response that only uses trusted sources and first hand data/ information to compare the main metrics that would be considered by the club chair if he were looking for the most similar match to OG.”

Chat gpt will then create a really good prompt for you to review- you tweak that to ensure it includes everything you want it to consider and then copy the prompt into a new thread.

Apparently kids call that “going meta”.
 
Whoever takes over is on a hiding to nothing.

It's very difficult to see someone improving or matching on Ollie has done. I think best would be someone who can keep us as mid table.

If Ollie could leave us with a Europa Conference League title and Europa League qualification then it's a very attractive job for a good manager.

After the summer transfer debacle, I think he won't stay as it's likely he no longer trusts Parish.
 
I am not impressed by any of the suggestions and why does this topic (like many other) degenerate into jokes?

Still think Danny Rohl would be a young and capable successor to Oliver Glasner but I hope the board will move heaven and earth to persuade him to stay on even if it means a substantial wage increase.

The mis-handling of the transfer season two years running does not give me much confidence that they will. Probably go for the cheaper and retrograde action of getting the gravel voiced ex Everton manager or, heaven forbid, the ex-England one.
 
Uphill said:
I am not impressed by any of the suggestions and why does this topic (like many other) degenerate into jokes?

Still think Danny Rohl would be a young and capable successor to Oliver Glasner but I hope the board will move heaven and earth to persuade him to stay on even if it means a substantial wage increase.

The mis-handling of the transfer season two years running does not give me much confidence that they will. Probably go for the cheaper and retrograde action of getting the gravel voiced ex Everton manager or, heaven forbid, the ex-England one.
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Smile and the world smiles with you……as the saying goes
 
Uphill said:
I am not impressed by any of the suggestions and why does this topic (like many other) degenerate into jokes?

Still think Danny Rohl would be a young and capable successor to Oliver Glasner but I hope the board will move heaven and earth to persuade him to stay on even if it means a substantial wage increase.

The mis-handling of the transfer season two years running does not give me much confidence that they will. Probably go for the cheaper and retrograde action of getting the gravel voiced ex Everton manager or, heaven forbid, the ex-England one.
Click to expand...
do we have enough bread for him to want a slice of the action? if it doesn't work out for him he might be toast, and nobody's considered the far yeast, it's not going against the grain, the land of the rising bun for example, look at Kamada and what a play baker he's turned out to be.:drunk:
 
Agree the wheels have come off since dougie left.
Won the FA Cup , Charity Shield. Unbeaten in 14. 🤣


Palacesince64 said:
Great post! I was thinking there must be a Glasner mk2 out there
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Palacesince64 said:
who can pick up what is a talented squad and a well organised team and build on the success we’ve enjoyed. I like the sound of Fischer.
Perhaps as important as finding a replacement for Ollie is the need for them to work well with the director of football. The wheels started to come off when Dougie left. He did a great job in identifying good young prospects and bringing them in. He and Ollie felt like the dream team, leaving Parish to look at the bigger picture in terms of growing the club and improving the stadium. Parish has had to shoulder too much of the burden since Dougie bailed out culminating in the events of last month. It remains to be seen whether the new guy can build a strong relationship with Ollie and working with our new CEO convince him that things will improve and he should stay. At the moment it seems like a long shot.
Click to expand...
 
ex hibitionist said:
that's a good call, or certainly a very interesting one. There are plenty out there - Potter at Ostersund, the guy from Fredrikstad impressed me though I think we might be a bridge too far, his predecessor worked wonders apparently, look at the Brighton coach - if we can do a bit of Dougie-type spotting but for coaches rather than players we can unearth a gem, but we'd be lucky to get three seasons out of them if they prove successful b4 they'd get snapped up by a bigger fish. Maybe someone older, like Lucien Favre, who isn't going to treat us as a stepping stone.
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We could be that bigger fish come May though !👍
 
Casual said:
Agree the wheels have come off since dougie left.
Won the FA Cup , Charity Shield. Unbeaten in 14. 🤣
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It’s a thread about Ollie leaving. I’m suggesting things started to go wrong with relationships when Dougie left and Parish had to work with Ollie on incoming transfers while needing to make money on sales. Thankfully all is well on the field this season so far.
 
Palacesince64 said:
It’s a thread about Ollie leaving. I’m suggesting things started to go wrong with relationships when Dougie left and Parish had to work with Ollie on incoming transfers while needing to make money on sales. Thankfully all is well on the field this season so far.
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The problem here though, is Glasner is not leaving. At least not yet.

But some posters like to read too much into the rubbish made up by so-called 'reporters', and run with their own made-up opinions, which are taken as facts.

I imagine that all is well off-field, as well as on-field.
 
Tim Gypsy Hill '64 said:
The problem here though, is Glasner is not leaving. At least not yet.

But some posters like to read too much into the rubbish made up by so-called 'reporters', and run with their own made-up opinions, which are taken as facts.

I imagine that all is well off-field, as well as on-field.
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I’m inclined to agree that things aren’t as bad as click bait suggests. However, I’ve never been convinced Glasner would extend his contract so we may as well enjoy this season. Whatever happens he will leave us better than when he found us.
 
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