Pierre Sage Inherits Legacy at Crystal Palace

Pierre Sage walked into Crystal Palace with his eyes open. He knew he was inheriting Oliver Glasner’s legacy, the most successful period the club has known, and that the glow of a European trophy would quickly give way to the grind of a new season and a messy transfer window.

Two defeats – to Everton and Manchester City – have already stripped away any romance. The futures of key Conference League winners hung in the air. The new man from Belley was dropped straight into south London’s familiar late‑window chaos.

Late deals, thin margins

Ismaïla Sarr and Jean-Philippe Mateta stayed in the end, despite serious interest from Liverpool and Aston Villa. Palace still turned over the squad, bringing in four new faces after missing out on Malick Fofana in one of deadline day’s more frantic subplots, with Sunderland stealing in.

Sage knew what he was signing up for. Palace live on the edge of the deadline.

“I knew that and I had to deal and adapt to that,” he said of a club that has signed 10 players on the final day across the last three summer windows. The Frenchman doesn’t complain about the timing. He cares about the profiles. “At the end the most important thing is to have the player or the profile we choose and that’s the case. I think we are in line with what we need.”

Glasner never hid his irritation at waiting until the final hours to get business done. He has gone to Nottingham Forest, taking Daniel Muñoz with him, and left behind a club still wrestling with its own market identity. Sage, more restrained in public, has had his own battles.

The one that got away

The real wound came at centre-back. Maxence Lacroix’s sale to Chelsea in July stripped Palace not just of a defender, but of a leader. Sage pushed hard for Ismaëlo Ganiou, the 21-year-old cornerstone of his Lens side that lifted the Coupe de France and finished second in Ligue 1 last season.

Lens dug in. Ganiou signed a new contract in early August. The door shut.

Palace scrambled for alternatives. A move for Club Brugge’s Joel Ordóñez collapsed with the Ecuadorian still recovering from a broken foot. Approaches for Augsburg’s Chrislain Matsima and Brest’s Raphaël Le Guen went nowhere. Axel Disasi arrived, along with teenage defender Honest Ahanor on loan, to cover the gap. Yet no one at Selhurst can say with certainty that Lacroix’s authority has been replaced.

The pattern repeated in midfield. Mamadou Sangaré chose Brentford over a reunion with Sage, another Lens link slipping through his fingers. The manager then turned to a different old home, Lyon, driving Palace’s pursuit of Malick Fofana.

They pushed hard. Sage picked up the phone repeatedly on deadline day, speaking directly to the Belgium forward. It still wasn’t enough.

“I’m really proud and happy with what the club did for that,” he said. “We fight a lot and sometimes you cannot give more than this, but we give our best in this situation. At the end, the player chooses.”

Instead, Palace landed Dario Osorio from Midtjylland on an initial loan with an obligation to buy next summer for £26m. Talented, direct, dangerous from the right flank – but not the central attacking profile Fofana would have offered. Time will tell if that trade-off proves costly.

Attack refreshed, wallet closed

Up front, the squad looks rich on paper. Dwight McNeil has come in, as has Evann Guessand, even if the latter has been left out of the Europa League squad. Sarr remains, his pace and unpredictability still in Palace colours.

Ben Chilwell’s arrival and the late signing of Quinten Timber add depth in midfield. Keeping Adam Wharton may be the most important piece of all. Palace turned down offers from unnamed clubs, with Manchester City and Chelsea among those circling. “The club was strong with the situation, and I think the player is completely in line with that,” Sage said.

For all that, the balance sheet tells its own story. After smashing their transfer record twice in January on Jørgen Strand Larsen and Brennan Johnson – the latter later swapped with Everton for McNeil – this summer went the other way. Palace posted almost £40m in profit, the second-lowest net spend in the league behind Aston Villa. Over the last five seasons, Hull and Coventry, both in the Championship, have invested more than Palace’s £90m.

It is a club talking about Europe while spending like a mid-table survivor.

“We are not a bank”

Sage will not be drawn into open conflict over budgets. When the subject arises, he reaches back to Belley, to his parents’ brasserie in eastern France.

“I’m not frustrated – we are not a bank,” he said. “We do with what we have. My parents had a restaurant and I prefer every day there’s a lot of clients but it was not the case sometimes and we have to deal with that every day. In football it’s the same.”

It is a revealing comparison. Some nights the tables are full, some nights they are not. You still have to serve. At Palace, the dining room is Europe, the kitchen is operating on limited stock, and the head chef is being asked to improvise.

Fulham away, with key absences

Now comes Fulham on Saturday, and the reality of the squad in its current state. Sarr will not feature, still sidelined by a groin injury and, more subtly, by the emotional fallout of Liverpool’s pursuit. His agent publicly criticised how the winger was treated during that saga. Sage expects him back for the Ipswich game next weekend but admits the Senegal forward “needs time”.

Mateta will also be missing. A hamstring injury ended his hopes of a move and will keep him out for another three weeks. Two of Palace’s most prominent attackers, both staying against the backdrop of transfer drama, both unavailable when the season already feels delicate.

Sage, though, has what he has. A remodelled attack, a patched-up defence, a club banking profit while trying to sustain European ambition. The research is done, the window is shut, and the Frenchman now has to prove that Selhurst Park’s most successful era did not end with Glasner – it merely changed hands.