There is another Australian coaching in the Premier League … and his team is winning

5 days ago 7

Premier League with 4K on Stan Sport.

Every match, live & on demand.

Until Ange Postecoglou’s appointment at Nottingham Forest, it was tough to find an Aussie to get behind in the Premier League this season - especially as there is no immediate prospect of any current Socceroos getting on the pitch anytime soon.

But if you look closely at Crystal Palace’s dugout, you might spot another familiar face. And, this person is winning matches.

Former Socceroo James Holland has joined the south London club this season as an assistant to Oliver Glasner - becoming just the fourth Australian coach to work in England’s top division, after Postecoglou and his two ex-assistants Mile Jedinak and Nick Montgomery.

“It’s pretty special, hey?” Holland said.

Holland, 36, played under Glasner at Austrian Bundesliga club LASK. That’s where Glasner cut his teeth as a manager, before steering Eintracht Frankfurt to the Europa League title in 2022 and then, last season, delivering Palace’s first ever major trophy with the FA Cup.

Picking up this season right where they left off, Palace’s 18-match unbeaten streak - which continued with a 2-1 upset win over Liverpool at the weekend - is the longest of any club in Europe’s top five leagues. They are currently third in the Premier League.

James Holland wearing the captain’s armband for Oliver Glasner’s LASK in a Europa League fixture in 2019.

The opportunity to work alongside Glasner, rather than playing for him, came almost out of the blue for Holland - but it could and maybe should have come 12 months earlier.

Holland still had an option in his favour to continue playing at Austria Wien when he received a call from his old boss, who replaced Roy Hodgson as Palace manager last February. Glasner told him he wanted him to join his coaching staff for the 2024-25 season - so Holland pulled the pin on his playing career and started planning for life in London.

Much to his surprise, two weeks before pre-season training was to begin, Holland was denied a visa to work in the United Kingdom by the Football Association’s exemptions board because he did not have his UEFA A Licence.

Postecoglou, who coached Holland during his Socceroos days and included him in his squad for the 2014 World Cup, had written a glowing letter of endorsement on his behalf - but having navigated such processes before, even he was doubtful as to whether Holland’s application would be successful.

James Holland, pictured with Maloo the Socceroos mascot, in 2014.

“That left me in a really tricky situation because I was still fit, I was playing pretty well at the time as well. I was like … well, what do I do?”

It’s a sign of the high regard Holland is held in by Glasner that he told him he would do whatever was necessary to get him in the next season, provided he obtained his coaching badges in the interim.

“As all the great men are, he’s a man of his word,” Holland said.

Holland can’t say for sure what he did to earn such recognition from Glasner - but he suspects it has something to do with his inquisitive mind, and the intangible qualities he showed as one of his more experienced players at LASK.

Fully aware of his shortcomings as a footballer, Holland always figured he needed to understand the game at a deeper tactical level to be able to outmatch other players. To do that, he would constantly nag Glasner with all sorts of questions about team dynamics, on-field situations and leadership - and kept on picking his brain after he left to continue his coaching journey in Germany.

“I’m an Australian that played in Austria. In the grand scheme of things, in the Premier League world, I’m pretty irrelevant,” he said.

“I definitely don’t take it for granted. He’s had some amazing players play under him and for whatever reason, he landed on me, and offered to bring me along to this next step as well.

“Ollie’s not someone that will hand out compliments to your face. You really have to earn them, and he drives really high standards, which is one of the reasons he’s successful. I guess him and Ange are similar like that.

“But I’m so grateful for the opportunity he’s given me. That also helps you believe in yourself a little bit more as well, because when someone at that level, with that amount of competence, and also the values he has as a human being - if he sees something in you, I’m pretty chuffed, to be honest.”

See if you can spot James Holland amidst Crystal Palace’s FA Community Shield celebrations.

Holland is still pinching himself about where he has ended up. His first official game on the Crystal Palace bench ended in silverware, with a penalty shootout victory over Liverpool in the FA Community Shield at Wembley. The magnitude of the Premier League, and being inside the machine he used to watch operate from afar, is at times overwhelming, but in a good way.

His brief is broad: to assist Glasner and the other coaches in whatever way is appropriate. Sometimes that’s by taking players through individual video sessions, sometimes it’s by helping Glasner filter through possible transfer targets - an area he has experience in, having served as a scout for Austria Wien for six months as he awaited his visa approval.

Most days, he drives to training with Glasner. Spending that extra time by his side and watching him operate up close has given him a thorough insight into the huge demands placed on a top-level manager, something he one day aspires to become himself.

“It’s insane,” Holland said. “His ability to stay cool, steady and calm, and analyse every situation on point and come up with the right perspective and message to the players, and the analysis of everything - because there’s so much these days, you get bombarded with so much information. As a coach, it would be easy to be overwhelmed, but the best coaches are able to make the complicated simple for the players.

Oliver Glasner (left), assistant Paddy McCarthy (centre) and James Holland.

“For me to be able to just see all of that and see how he does it … I joke around with one of the other assistant coaches, we call him Rain Man, because he’s just incredible. Everything he holds in his head, the numbers and everything, it’s just really, really impressive, and obviously I’m writing as many notes as possible and trying to come up with my own ideas. Thieves make the best coaches, so take what I can along the way.”

Glasner and Postecoglou, he reckons, are different characters but similar managers in a lot of ways.

“The one thing that they definitely have in common, which I really appreciate, is the human element,” he said.

“They’re very principled. They have their values, and they stick to them. They’re very good human beings - and in this world of football, with all these pressures and influences and politics and everything that’s going on around, it’s just really, really refreshing to see two people that are incredible role models as human beings. Luckily enough, I’ve been able to work with both.

“For me to be able to see that you can stay true to your principles, to your values as a human being and succeed at the top level ... that’s just really nice to see, I guess.”

Holland is fully aware of the privileged position he is in, as the latest of a generation of Australian coaches making their mark on football abroad - including Kevin Muscat, Peter Cklamovski, Ante Milicic, Arthur Papas and others - though he knows he is at the very bottom of the food chain, and doesn’t have any runs on the board. Not yet, anyway.

But none of them would be where they are if Postecoglou hadn’t first shattered the glass ceiling. “I think the amazing thing that he’s done for us is he’s given us permission to dream,” Holland said.

“It’s like the golden generation gave us permission to dream, that we can achieve anything as players - and Ange gave us permission to dream beyond that, as coaches or administrators or whatever else.

“I think that’s such a special legacy he’s given us. I’m just grateful that Ollie gave me this opportunity to also be mentioned in the breath of those other Australian coaches who are doing really well and also giving other young coaches permission to dream in their own kind of way.”

Football has a new home. Stream the Premier League, Emirates FA Cup, J.League and NWSL live & on demand, including Premier League with 4K, from August 2025 on Stan Sport.