Smash the Panic Button! What Has Led to Crystal Palace's Two Week Meltdown?

2 Week Meltdown! What Has Happened at Crystal Palace?

By the start of the 25/26 Premier League season, Crystal Palace had just experienced their best year in the club's history, winning their first-ever major trophy and picking up a second piece of silverware just a few months later. But just eight months after that, the club finds itself in meltdown mode. Palace is playing its first ever season in Europe, competing in the UEFA Europa Conference League.

The Eagles started the current season 11 games unbeaten in all competitions, eventually extending their run to 19 games including the back end of last season. All of this points towards a positive atmosphere around the club, but right now it could not get any worse.

Fans are unhappy on and off the pitch. Oliver Glasner has spoken out against Chairman Steve Parish, and big players have left the club with more trying to force their way out the door. Everything has blown up in such a short space of time. One thing is for sure is every Palace fan will remember January 2026, me included.

Every little incident over the last eight months has left us wondering what went wrong at Crystal Palace FC?

Where did it start?

Well, Crystal Palace appointed Oliver Glasner back in February of 2024, with the hopes that he could take this mid-table Premier League side to the next level. In his first game in charge, the Eagles stormed out to a 3-0 victory over strugglers Burnley, with Jean-Philippe Mateta on the scoresheet. Everything was looking up over in South London. In Glasner’s 13 games in charge in that 23/24 season, Palace picked up 24 points, including a 5-0 thrashing of Champions League qualifiers Aston Villa. Once again, Mateta found himself in the goals in that game to pick up the match ball, leaving fans hopeful for the next year.

The 24/25 season kicked started with controversy as Palace lost on the opening day with a superb Eberechi Eze free-kick bizarrely being ruled out. They went on to lose 2-0 at home to West Ham, leaving fans thinking that just another mediocre season was underway. But a 1-0 win at home to Spurs in late October turned things around, and Glasner’s side started to look up, not down.

Heading into Christmas, they’d picked up 16 points and just crashed out of the Carabao Cup in the Quarter-finals, losing 3-2 to Arsenal. But with the start of a new year, it means the start of the FA Cup, and little did Palace know what the competition had in store for them.

Eze was robbed of an absolute all-timer free kick😪 pic.twitter.com/KzwhGPC8UA

— The 44 ⚽️ (@The_Forty_Four) August 18, 2024

Crystal Palace had a great run in the FA Cup the year before and had found themselves at Wembley for the first time since 2022, where they fell short, losing 2-0 to Chelsea. Fans were hopeful that things would be different this time around, but a high-flying Aston Villa side awaited them. Heading into the game, pundits were tipping Villa to win in a tight affair, but that was far from the case.

Glasner schooled Emery (Again!), winning 3-0. The victory was Glasner’s fourth over Emery in five games, drawing the other. Palace found themselves back in the FA Cup final looking to break their trophy duck, losing out twice to Manchester United in 1990 and 2016. Another Manchester side awaited them in the final, this time from the blue side.

On May 17th, 2025 I, like every other Palace fan around the world, experienced the most nerve-wracking, emotional game in the club's history. Palace got off to a shaky start with Haaland getting an early shot on target. But after just 16 minutes, Eze scored his biggest goal, giving his side the lead in the FA Cup final at Wembley.

Then came the storm, and Dean Henderson found himself lucky to be on the pitch after a questionable touch with his hand outside the box. He was then called into action moments later, saving Marmoush’s effort from the spot, keeping Palace ahead. For the next 78 minutes, Palace defended for their lives, with every fan cheering them on. It felt like an eternity, but it was all worth it when the final whistle went, and the tears started flowing. Crystal Palace had won the FA Cup!

What's gone wrong?

Glasner’s side, of course, played at Wembley once again, in the Community Shield. They picked up their second piece of silverware, beating Liverpool on penalties. The sun was shining, and fans really thought they’d turned a leaf. Where will Crystal Palace now as a team competing for titles over the coming years?

The answer is no, the club has gone into complete meltdown. The season started with more controversy; Eze became the first player in Premier League history to have a free kick ruled out on the opening day two years in a row. It was a bitter moment for him, as his last game for the club ended in a 0-0 draw despite him finding the back of the net.

We fans were sad to see Eze leave, but selling is part of the club's identity and structure. The season continues, and we go 11 games unbeaten in the new season, sitting in the top four, ending Liverpool’s unbeaten run with late drama. But everything since that first loss away at Everton has crumbled right in front of our own eyes. Since that moment, Palace have failed to qualify in the top eight of the UEFA Conference League, having to play additional games. We should not have even been in that competition, having qualified for the Europa League, but Steve Parish didn’t check his emails…

UEFA has demoted Crystal Palace to the Conference League from the Europa League next season due to multi-club ownership rules.

Palace are set to appeal the decision.

😬📉 pic.twitter.com/WFJxa3GiMw

— B/R Football (@brfootball) July 11, 2025

The club has had everything go wrong in the last two weeks. They were knocked out byMacclesfield in the FA Cup third round, the biggest upset in the competition's history. They sold club captain Marc Guehi to Manchester City for less than £30 million. Oliver Glasner publicly announced he will be leaving at the end of the season and has openly spoken about the problems with the chairman. Now Mateta wants to leave and could even be heading to new rivals Nottingham Forest. In the space of just two weeks, the club has done a full 180, leaving fans confused and frustrated as Crystal Palace waste away a potential era of success.

''We agreed at the time to keep it between us....I told the team today the same''

Oliver Glasner opens on his conversation with Steve Parish in the October international break, telling him he would not sign a new contract with Crystal Palace ❌ pic.twitter.com/OMRGKK7zAH

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) January 16, 2026

Now it’s time to rant, sorry everyone. Palace have always been a feeding club, often selling our best players and simply fighting to survive in the Premier League. Things really looked different under Glasner; he’s our greatest ever manager.

But Parish has refused to spend, leaving the club in the dark. We’ve now lost our manager and captain, we’re losing our striker, and more importantly, we’re losing the buzz around the club. Fans are growing frustrated, they don’t want to come to games, players look like their season is finished, and they don’t want to play. Yes, you can blame the manager for announcing his departure early at a crucial time in the season. You have to look at the higher-ups, an unwillingness to back your manager and wasting £35 million on Brennan Johnson!

Sorry Brennan. The club, simply put, had a chance to progress to the next level and not only wasted that opportunity, but threw it away. It leaves us fans wondering what the future of the club looks like.

Who will be in charge come next season? Who will stay and who will leave? And most importantly, will we ever reach the heights of that FA Cup again?