Chelsea emerge as frontrunners for Crystal Place star with verbal bid sent

As The Top Flight covered last month, Manchester City and Chelsea were both labelled as admirers of Crystal Palace’s Michael Olise. Both clubs had checked in on the injury status of the player as he has yet to even train for Crystal Palace this summer. He picked up this injury during the U21 Euros with France.

Reports out of France now suggest that Chelsea are making a move for Crystal Palace’s star forward. Fabrice Hawkins of RMC Sport believes that Chelsea have made a verbal bid of £26m for Olise. Hawkins believes that personal terms between the club and the player have already been agreed to. One major caveat on a deal is that Chelsea wants an exact report on Olise’s injury status before tabling an official bid to Crystal Palace. What will be exciting news for Chelsea fans is that Michael Olise reportedly favours a move to Stamford Bridge over joining Manchester City.

It feels unlikely Crystal Palace will accept the Blues’ offer if they do formally submit the £26m proposal. Michael Olise holds a £35m release clause with Crystal Palace which always seem like a bargain deal if anyone was to activate it. Seen as one of the better playmakers in the Premier League, Michael Olise drew tons of eyes last season. He recorded 11 assists last season, which was good enough for joint-fourth in the league with Bukayo Saka.

Michael Olise is of Nigerian, French and Algerian descent but was born and raised in London, England. Funny enough, the two sides that are looking to potentially sign Olise are both clubs he played for at the academy level. Olise originally left Arsenal for Chelsea in 2009 and stayed there until 2015. Between 2015 and 2016, he played with Manchester City before heading to Reading, where he made a name for himself before his Palace move.