Man Utd must steer clear of Oliver Glasner: Antagonistic Austrian has the hallmarks of another Ruben Amorim - despite incredible achievements with Crystal Palace

Glasner's reputation among Palace fans has eroded amid a run of three victories in their last 17 games, which included a winless run spanning 12 matches. Among the defeats was the shock elimination from the FA Cup by non-league Macclesfield - the biggest giant killing in FA Cup history, a 4-1 hammering at Leeds and a home defeat by 19th-placed Burnley. 

Having been fourth in the Premier League table in early December, Palace head to Old Trafford in 13th. Beating Brighton and Wolves in two of their last three games has eased fears about being relegated but has surely damaged Glasner's chances of getting the elite level job he desires after announcing in January that he will be leaving Selhurst Park at the end of the season.

Glasner told Palace chairman Steve Parish in October that he was going to leave as he "wanted a new challenge". He insisted that Palace's frustrating summer transfer window, during which they sold Eberechi Eze, made a profit of £20m and had to abandon selling Marc Guehi to Liverpool after failing to sign a replacement defender, was not the reason why he had had enough.

But just one day later, following defeat at Sunderland, he went on a tirade against the board which completely contradicted his claim as he lashed out over the sale of Guehi to Manchester City. He said: "I feel we are being abandoned completely. I can't blame any player. They did everything they could and this has been going on for weeks and months now. We have 12, 13 players from the squad available and we feel no support. The worst thing is selling our captain one day before playing a Premier League game.

"We are preparing, it's the first (full) week we are training since September, and then we are selling our captain one day before a game. So I have no understanding of this. I have always kept my mouth (shut), but I can't because I have to defend these players, because it was the 35th game today. Yes we get under pressure here and we are unlucky. But again, you can't react, we can't help them, it makes it really tough." 

His outburst was reminiscent of Amorim's verbal assault just two weeks earlier at Elland Road which was the final straw for United's board and sealed his dismissal. The Portuguese had fallen out with director of football Jason Wilcox two days earlier after his formation was questioned, with it also being reported that he had been told that he was not going to get any support in the January transfer window. 

Amorim's repeated line that he "came here to be the manager, not the coach" implied he had also disagreed with the club's transfer decisions, such as going over his head to sign Senne Lammens instead of Emi Martinez.

Amorim clearly got far more support in the transfer market than Glasner, who lost Michael Olise the previous summer and who said losing Eze and Guehi was like "getting your heart torn out twice this season". But showing the same tendency to rage against the board when he did not get his way does not stand him in good stead for working at United now that the Red Devils have built a structure where coaches have very little say on transfers.

Glasner has continued to mimic Amorim by giving more headline-grabbing interviews and press conferences which have opened up more divisions between him, the board, the fans and potentially the players too. 

After fans chanted "you're getting sacked in the morning" during the 1-1 draw at Zrinjski Mostar in the Europa Conference League, Glasner fired back by saying: "Stay humble. Never forget where you're coming from. I think a few who are so critical in this situation are not humble anymore. Forget where you are coming from and usually in life you are punished for this."

Palace's vocal supporters group, Holmesdale Fanatics, then held up a banner in the next game against Wolves saying 'Fans disrespected - Glasner finished'. 

To see the man who delivered the club's first ever trophy and was responsible for so many impressive wins in the last two years turn into a villain among supporters should be another warning to United to steer clear of Glasner.

As former Palace boss Sam Allardyce put it on the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast: "He needs to get a bit humbler. He needs to swallow a bit of his pride and stop creating this narrative. I'm certain that he's almost creating this to get himself sacked and paid off. I think the manager is totally out of order. We all get frustrated by the selling of your best players, but if you're there, it's a fact of life. He's really spoiled his reputation on what he has achieved with so little at Crystal Palace, and it's sad that it's probably going to end a little bit bitter."

Then there is the question of Glasner's tactics. Glasner is unlike Amorim in that he has used a variety of formations throughout his career, insisting that he picks a formation based on the qualities of the players at his disposal rather than crowbarring square pegs into round holes for the sake of the system. But he has been unable to build on the achievements of last season and the team are still playing reactive football, failing to beat many teams below them because of their inability to dominate games.

Tony Cascarino wrote in The Times: "The Eagles’ inability to break down a team five tiers below them [Macclesfield], with the onus on them to create, is worrying for sides looking to hire Glasner. There is an expectation for a dominant brand of football at elite clubs, and the underdog-adjacent style he has found success with at Palace and Eintracht Frankfurt won’t wash at the top level."

Regarding Glasner's chances of coaching United, Cascarino raised concerns about his desire for control beyond the pitch. "He has an arrogance of someone who is set on what they want to implement at a club and demands a lot," he wrote. He also cited the unconvincing record of managers who have overachieved at smaller clubs once they get bigger jobs such as "Graham Potter battling with media scrutiny at Chelsea, David Moyes with the pressure cooker of United". 

If Michael Carrick's incredible run of results since succeeding Amorim continues against Palace and he eventually takes the team back into the Champions League, it will be increasingly difficult for United to not give him the job. Given what happened with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, however, United understandably want to scour the market and look at all the other top candidates. 

Luis Enrique is a compelling choice in the long term as is Julian Nagelsmann even though he has committed to Germany until 2028, as has Thomas Tuchel with England.

But given their recent experience with a coach who was tactically inflexible, wanted more control over transfers and could never hold his tongue, they would do well to exclude Glasner from their search.