When Fabian Hürzeler called Oliver Glasner a few days after his appointment by Brighton last June, he found the Crystal Palace manager was only too happy to offer a few pointers about life in the Premier League. “He is very helpful and open-minded,” Hürzeler later said. “He is a role model, I think, in how he acts and how humble and grounded he is.”
Although Glasner and Hürzeler were managers in Germany at the same time at Eintracht Frankfurt and St Pauli respectively, they worked in different divisions and had not come face to face until Ismaïla Sarr scored twice in a 3-1 Palace victory at the Amex in December. The Austrian had warned his Brighton counterpart in one of their frequent chats that their friendship would be put aside for the afternoon as arch-rival clubs met in the fixture some outsiders have taken to referring to as the “A23 derby”.
