Premier League news: A look at how Oliver Glasner’s Nottingham Forest are shaping up
Oliver Glasner has spent the last two and a half seasons managing Crystal Palace, tallying a club-record 53 points in the 2024/25 Premier League campaign as well as winning both the FA Cup and the Conference League.
Here, Sports News Blitz writer Dylan Grady looks into how the 51-year-old Austrian can continue that success with Nottingham Forest.
Parish fallout and Marinakis importance
During last season’s October international break, Glasner told Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish that he wouldn’t be signing a new contract.
The news of that decision was only made public in January, with Parish feeling obliged to let the fans know that Glasner wouldn’t be continuing as manager.
Glasner certainly offered his opinions on proceedings throughout last season, mostly during the winter transfer window when – after Palace had suffered a 2-1 defeat to Sunderland – he came out and said, “I feel we are being abandoned completely.’’
He also criticised the timing of the sale of Marc Guéhi to Manchester City, saying: “The worst thing is selling our captain one day before playing a Premier League game.’’
Then, in February, the Austrian seemingly threw in the towel by stating: “I’m just not good enough to replace the players we sold.’’
Clearly, over the course of his last year at Palace, there was a falling out between the board, most importantly Parish, and Glasner.
Once Glasner’s contract had expired, he was touted for multiple jobs across Europe, including at AC Milan, Everton, and some other Premier League clubs.
He eventually set his mind on Nottingham Forest, and deemed that Evangelos Marinakis, Forest’s chairman, was the deciding factor in his move to the East Midlands.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Glasner claimed: “Marinakis is the reason I changed my mind on the Forest job.’’
“I said to Mr Marinakis that it shouldn’t be the goal to play European football once. We don’t want to be a one-hit wonder.’’
That type of thinking is the reason why the Forest chairman made the Austrian his number one choice for the managerial role, sacking Vítor Pereira – who only arrived in February – to make it happen.
Another reason why Glasner may have been swayed to take over at Forest is the widely reported figure that he is being paid to manage the club on the River Trent.
Glasner is supposedly earning a £13 million salary (£250,000 per week), which makes him the second-highest paid manager in the Premier League behind Mikel Arteta on a reported £15m salary (£290,000 per week) at Premier League champions Arsenal.
The significance of Morgan Gibbs-White
Having come up against him many times whilst at Palace, Glasner knows the value and worth of Morgan Gibbs-White to his Forest side.
The Englishman netted 15 goals in the league last season and was very unfortunate to miss out on England’s World Cup 2026 squad.
Since his arrival in the summer of 2022 for £40m, Gibbs-White has been Forest’s main man and the catalyst of everything good at the City Ground.
After taking in a recent pre-season training session in the Algarve, Glasner said: “Without Morgan’s goals, Forest would probably have been relegated because Chris Wood was injured for so many months.
“He’s definitely very important. He has a very high influence in the team and can make a difference.”
This time last year, Gibbs-White looked set to be on his way to Spurs, but a last-minute U-turn saw him stay at Forest and commit his future to the club.
That ended up being crucial for Forest as they made it to the Europa League semi-finals, where they were knocked out by eventual champions and Midlands rivals Aston Villa.
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How Forest are shaping up
Forest’s transfer window has so far been pretty quiet, certainly in the incoming sector.
Xaver Schlager has been brought in from Bundesliga side RB Leipzig, with Glasner previously working with the Austrian midfielder when they were both at VfL Wolfsburg.
Schlager played under Glasner for two seasons, including Wolfsburg’s excellent 2020/21 campaign which saw them finish fourth in the Bundesliga and secure Champions League qualification.
The 28-year-old thus brings solid experience to the Forest midfield, having also played 19 times in the Champions League for RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg.
He has moreover won four Austrian Bundesliga titles, the DFB Pokal, and the German Super Cup.
Schlager’s playing style complements Glasner’s tactics too, with his high-energy, ball-winning actions across the pitch making him a traditional box-to-box midfielder.
Given the recent departure of Elliot Anderson to Man City for £115m, his arrival goes some way to filling the void that the Geordie left in the centre of the pitch.
Elsewhere, Forest have completed the signing of Ousmane Diomande from Sporting Lisbon for £34.3m, adding strength to the backline alongside Murillo and Nikola Milenković.
That signing definitely indicates the direction Forest are going under Glasner, with the Austrian set to deploy his favoured system of three at the back, incorporating Ola Aina and Neco Williams as wing-backs.
The 22-year-old Ivorian international is a highly regarded centre-back and clubs such as Manchester United and Liverpool were interested in his services.
On the pitch, Diomande had the second-highest passing accuracy of all players who played at least 1,000 minutes in the Primeira Liga last season, with 93.1%.
And since his league debut in February 2023, only two players have completed more passes than his tally of 5,354.
The Diomande deal could even be a sign of a potential shift in philosophy – Glasner might want his team to dominate the ball more, rather than counter-attacking being the main method of hurting teams.
Forest have also identified Lucas Bergvall and Tijjani Reijnders as potential signings, with both offering many technical qualities on the ball that could get Forest ticking.
In the end, whether Forest will remain patient in the transfer market or land another big-money signing is unclear, but we’ll find out in the next couple of weeks.
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