Crystal Palace’s ‘secret’ Oliver Glasner meeting gatecrashed by EFL club as Hodgson offers to take charge at Everton

CRYSTAL PALACE supremo Steve Parish held a ‘secret’ meeting with Oliver Glasner in a London hotel hideaway.

But as chairman Parish talked through the Palace job with the No. 1 candidate on Friday night, he was spotted by guests — including the Sheffield Wednesday squad!

It was the first face-to-face meeting between Parish and Glasner and came while Eagles boss Roy Hodgson was still in hospital.

Glasner, 49, even attended Tottenham’s 2-1 home defeat to Wolves yesterday — a possible scouting trip with Palace facing Spurs on March 2.

Parish seems set to replace Hodgson with Glasner — the choice of major shareholder John Textor — as he is available and keen to take on the challenge at Selhurst Park.

Veteran Hodgson, 76, was willing to leave his sick bed and head for Goodison to help in the crucial game against Everton tomorrow.

Hodgson collapsed at training on Thursday morning and had to go for checks but within hours he was offering to be available for the clash.

The former England boss was prepared to travel on the day and play a role either from the dugout or, more likely, the directors’ box.

Yet Hodgson will have further talks with Parish about his plans and will also wait for word on his health checks.

Talk was rife about Hodgson being sacked on Thursday but Parish did not speak to him before checking on his welfare later that day.

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Parish wanted Hodgson to be in charge at Everton despite being pushed to make a decision and appoint Glasner.

The Owls, who faced Millwall in the Championship yesterday, were also staying at the Hilton Hotel in Greenwich where Parish met Austrian coach Glasner and his camp and spotted the pair.

And the former Eintracht Frankfurt is favoured by Textor who tried and failed to take him to Lyon earlier in the season.

Glasner decided against the move to France but is keen on the Premier League.

Parish also shortlisted Steve Cooper and Julen Lopetegui as emergency replacements — despite rumours both were keen in the right circumstances.

However, Glasner is a free agent and cheap in terms of wage demands and budget needs.

Glasner is clearly keen to get started with the job at hand after being out of work since leaving Eintracht Frankfurt in June 2023.

And on his Instagram page last week he posted a video in German in which he spoke about the challenges of taking over a new club.

The caption for the post to his 31,000 followers read: “What are the first tasks as a coach at a new football club?”

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk