Oliver Glasner criticises Crystal Palace transfer decisions - 'We could have done better'

"Hurting" Oliver Glasner insists he's paying the price for a lacklustre summer transfer window - indicating he is not solely to blame for Crystal Palace's struggles.

The crisis-hit Eagles, who are yet to taste victory in the top-flight this season, are out to finally break their duck this afternoon when visit Selhurst Park.

And while Glasner currently retains the full backing of the club's hierarchy, the under-pressure Austrian believes things must also improve upstairs - as well as on the field.

When asked if he was sold short in the market, the 50-year-old said: “It’s not a public discussion. I’ve already mentioned it several times, we could have done better in the transfer window. With four signings on deadline day, it’s not how you wish a transfer window would work. No one says: ‘Yes, we will wait until deadline day, then sign four players two weeks after the Premier League has started without them having any pre-season.’

“This is clearly what we should have done better. Everything else we have discussed, but in the end it was the club’s decision.”

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Glasner also outlined his desire to restore a sense of "realism" following last season's remarkable 10th-place finish which was kickstarted by his arrival in mid-February.

In his view, this summer's spending statistics show what are up against. He continued: "We all expected a lot this season but sometimes you have to be realistic, we don't want to be realistic as we have big goals and want to achieve a lot.

"But we were 10th last season and now to improve, read the table, ninth I think was who invested £140m net, eighth was and seventh was .

"So to improve we have to overtake one of them and when we look behind us, were 13th or something and invested £50m net and were 11th investing £180m net.

"These are our surroundings and we saved £20m net. The end of last season was so positive, we had four players with England in the Euros final, two in the Copa America final and one in the Olympic final.

"At the moment our form hurts, maybe we lost a sense of realism and now it's about finding a setup that can help us achieve our maximum. It's clear what we achieved up until now is not what we expected."

Glasner also reaffirmed his reluctance to push Adam Wharton towards groin surgery despite his ongoing fitness struggles. A final call regarding a potential operation will be made after Palace's next three fixtures: Spurs, Villa and .

He explained: "I'm not a surgeon, I don't know how long it would take. We expected Matheus Franca to be back within two to three months and he's still out.

"And I think all of us agree that Adam is 20 and could be my son, that if surgery is not 100 per cent necessary that we'd ever say 'ah, come on let's make a surgery'.

"We have a responsibility. It would be easy to say 'come on doctor, cut in' but he's a 20-year-old guy, having groin surgery is not something you want to do. We tried to find out whether it is really necessary - at the moment we would say yes because the pain hasn't reduced. But we'll try for as long as we can to deal with it.

"He could have played at , definitely but it was my decision as we played with a 3-5-2 system - we wanted Jeff Lerma also for the set-plays, in midfield.

"We wanted Will Hughes' personality and when you play 3-5-2 you want one of the 8s attacking the opposite box and this is more Daichi Kamada than Adam Wharton. But we really take our responsibility that we don't say yes to surgery so easily."

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