Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner says the lack of minutes for Christantus Uche has had at the club this season is “nothing personal”.
The 22-year-old forward, on a season-long loan at Palace from Getafe, was quoted by Read Crystal Palace to have said that Glasner “doesn’t like me” and suggested that he was not expecting to play again for the south-London club.
Uche has started only two games this season, the 2-1 defeat in the FA Cup third round by Macclesfield and the 3-0 win in December over Shelbourne in the league phase of the Conference League.
He has found minutes hard to come by and Palace bolstered their squad with the January additions of Brennan Johnson and Jorgen Strand Larsen, restricting his opportunities further.
As a result he was not registered for the knockout stages of the Conference League and has not featured in a matchday Palace squad for the last five Premier League games.
“For me it’s never to blame the player for (anything),” Glasner said in his press conference before Palace’s Conference League semi-final second leg match against Shakhtar Donetsk.
“It always stays internal. He wasn’t registered for the second part of the Conference League and I had a conversation with him. He wasn’t pleased with it but I had to take a decision due to the rules.
“We had new signings coming in. If I had known that Eddie Nketiah wouldn’t be fit then Uche would have been registered. But we had Jorgen Strand Larsen, JP Mateta and Eddie Nketiah this was the reason.
“From this day he felt like I don’t like him. It’s nothing personal, I like him as a person but again I had to take a decision and like always every player who is here gets the best possible support we can give him.”
Glasner named two goalkeepers on the bench for the 3-0 defeat by Bournemouth on Sunday, choosing not to put Uche in one of those spots, but he refused to be drawn on selections.
“It looks like he doesn’t make a game for us,” Glasner added. “There are reasons for it but I want to keep it in house. I’m always talking to the players directly not over the media., This is what everyone deserves.”
