Crystal Palace are expected to confirm Pierre Sage as the club’s new head coach within the next 24 to 36 hours.
New Lens: Pierre Sage enjoyed a meteoric year in the French league
A deal has been “agreed in principle” with the 47-year-old Frenchman on a contract until the summer of 2029, with the option of a further year.
Sage will arrive at Selhurst Park tagged as “second choice” to replace Oliver Glasner, who left the club last month after delivering the FA Cup in 2025 and winning the UEFA Conference League in May.
But Sage has enjoyed a similarly meteoric year since joining Lens in June 2025, taking them to second place in Ligue 1 – six points behind all-conquering Paris Saint-Germain – and winning the Coupe de France for the first time in the club’s history in his first year in charge at Stade Bollaert-Delelis.
Sage never played as a professional, having spent his entire playing career, from age six to 24, at CS Belley as an amateur.
He’d started studying to be a coach at 16, and by 2019 he was youth coach at Lyon. A spell as assistant manager at Paris club Red Star followed, before a return to Lyon in July 2023 as the manager of their academy. He became Lyon’s interim manager in November 2023 after the sacking of Fabio Grosso, being confirmed in post in January 2024, where he lasted a year.
It is Sage’s experience in developing youth football talent which will have been a big plus point when chairman Steve Parish and the Palace board were considering options.
Glasner told Parish last October that he would be leaving at the end of the 2025-2026 season. The Eagles had originally wanted Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola, but he was snapped up by Liverpool as their replacement for Arne Slot.
Tough act to replace: Oliver Glasner with the FA Cup
Frank Lampard, who has just led Coventry back to the Premier League promised land (and would have come with a demand for £5million compensation from the Midlanders), and Sean Dyche were among the other options considered by Palace.
Sage’s preference for a tactical system similar to that employed successfully by Glasner is believed to have been a major factor in his appointment.
At least one factor in Glasner’s decision to leave south London was Palace’s reputation as a “selling club”, with stars such as Michael Olise (now with Bayern Munich, and tipped to win this year’s Ballon d’Or), Eberechi Eze (who joined Arsenal as they pushed for the Premier League title) and Marc Guehi (at Manchester City), all leaving Selhurst Park with Glasner left to try to find replacements to match or enhance the squad.
With the demands of playing European football, with 60 games played by Palace last season, Glasner’s squad was stretched to near breaking point before reaching the Conference League final in Leipzig last month.
Midfielder Adam Wharton is now a transfer target for Liverpool and Manchester United, reportedly with a £100million valuation by Palace.
“It was understood there is a boardroom recognition that there will need to be substantial investment in the squad to cope with a second successive season of European football,” The Guardian reports this morning. Palace are set to play in the Europa League as reward for winning the Conference League.
Glasner, meanwhile, appears to have found himself a new job, at Milan, having had “extensive talks” last week and is expected to agree a deal to replace Max Allegri, who was dismissed after the seven-times European Cup-winners finished only fifth in Serie A.
That places AC Milan in the Europa League, where they could find themselves up against Crystal Palace…
Read more: Glasner’s farewell letter to Palace fans: ‘Together, we believed’
Read more: Wharton, ‘the Wilpshire Pirlo’, makes World Cup case to Tuchel
Our latest episode of the Croydon Insider podcast looks back on that magnificent night in Leipzig, and our football correspondent Andrew Sinclair looks ahead to this summer, and how Palace look to replace Glasner. - The Croydon Insider is premium content for iC’s paying subscribers: click here to sign up today to listen to our latest episode and our entire archive, plus benefit from reader offs and discounts
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Much better than Roy Hodgson. Phew!
Hopefully they will see sense and cancel their quarter stadium plan and relocate somewhere else to build a FULL stadium with funding help from Woody
Hopefully they stop selling players and start aiming for Champions League spots now.