Rob Holding to end Crystal Palace nightmare after Oliver Glasner rift as loan exit looms

Evening Standard

·3 February 2025

Rob Holding to end Crystal Palace nightmare after Oliver Glasner rift as loan exit looms

Former Arsenal defender is closing in on Sheffield United move after Selhurst Park exile

Sheffield United are closing in on a deal to sign Crystal Palace centre-back Rob Holding.

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The ex-Arsenal defender has been frozen out of the Palace first team and is now set to head to Bramall Lane until the end of the season, having travelled for a medical.

Holding, 29, joined the Eagles on deadline day in summer 2023 but has only made one senior appearance since then, partly due to injury, and his only action this season has come for the club’s Under-21 side.

A difference of opinion has led to manager Oliver Glasner not seeing the Englishman as an option for first-team game time.

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Explaining the situation on September 1, Glasner said: "Rob is training individually at the moment. We will talk together. He knows the reason. But it is something that stays between Rob and me. Nothing public."

Glasner echoed those sentiments when speaking at his press conference before the win over Manchester United on Friday. He replied "no" when asked whether Holding could return to the Palace team.

"Of course [there is a reason], but the reason Rob knows and it is not for the public,” he said.

Asked whether he would be allowed to leave during the winter window, Glasner replied: "Yes, if there’s a club who wants to sign him and he wants to go there.

“I think there will be a solution, but until now it was not and as always like in any other deal you need three parties who say yes - two clubs and Rob. As long as not all three parties say 'yes, I’ll do it', nothing will happen."