Iraola and Glasner: Premier League flavours of the month left with bad taste in their mouths | OneFootball

When Andoni Iraola and Oliver Glasner last met in October, it likely shattered the record for heart palpitations suffered by impatient Premier League chairmen.

An absurd 3-3 draw showcased the brilliance of the sides they had built, masking the fairly obvious deficiencies behind a visage of easily upscalable players, shiny goals and the tantalising thought of more exciting new coaching careers to ruin with one rushed, lustful appointment into the elite.

Bournemouth and Crystal Palace were 4th and 8th after that game, the former challenging for the Champions League while the latter embarked on their first season in Europe, both squads littered with ludicrous talent to be sold for ridiculous profit, guided by exceptional managers with unknown futures.

In the ten weeks or so since, Bournemouth’s relegation form and nine-game winless run has dragged them down to 15th, while Palace have lost three matches in a row to sink to 9th.

Those slumps present a different set of challenges and significantly reframe the one question both clubs must answer: who will manage them next season?

Bournemouth’s president of football operations, Tiago Pinto, said at the height of their form in September that contract talks with Iraola will take place “sooner than later”. But the immediate need to arrest this negative momentum will outweigh them.

Glasner, according to recent reports, will not be renewing his deal at Palace and that situation is starting to fester.

Both managers are out of contract at the end of the season and it isn’t difficult to imagine or even see how the uncertainty is starting to affect players who had only really experienced upward trajectories as part of these regimes.

These can only ever be revolutions built on quicksand. Bournemouth’s recruitment model makes it almost impossible to keep climbing higher up the ladder, while Palace allowed sense and sensibility to rule over indulgence when confronted by a potential crossroads.

Glasner’s perennial point is simple and fair: Palace needed to capitalise on a position of unexpected power by properly investing in the transfer window. The consequences of their perceived lack of ambition was felt in a ten-day run of results which dropped them into the Conference League knockout phase play-offs, eliminated them from the Carabao Cup and checked their Premier League ambitions.

Iraola, at this point, probably just doesn’t want to lose seemingly the only player capable of rising above this Bournemouth misery in mid-season.

The dreadful but inevitable shame is that two promising projects which challenged the elite are already fraying at the seams.

It presents a more pivotal January and summer than either Bournemouth or Palace are comfortable with. Can they do enough to keep Iraola or Glasner, either through signings or promises? And really should they when there is a risk of overreaching and in all likelihood either will eventually jump for the next decent offer?

The life of a Premier League club punching above its weight in terms of both manager and position is, as ever, fraught with difficult decisions and no real right answer.