Creative machine: Why Man City and Chelsea are desperate for Olise

Sam McGuire

• Updated: 29 Jul 2023 07:21 CDT
• 5 min read

It isn’t often that Manchester City and Chelsea battle it out for a player but both have reportedly set their sights on Crystal Palace attacker Michael Olise.

The 21-year-old is believed to have a €40 million release clause in his deal at Selhurst Park and both clubs have an interest in the France Under-21 international despite his current injury status.

Olise suffered a hamstring tear at the Under-21 European Championships and he isn’t expected to be back anytime soon. Palace manager Roy Hodgson was asked recently about his No7 and his reply was: “We’ve known since the injury that it’s going to take a while for him to get fit again. It was a serious injury which required an operation. He’s well into his rehabilitation but it’s going to take a bit longer for him to recover.

“At the moment we’re just hoping that the rehabilitation will go well and that we get him back as quickly as possible. But we certainly we won’t be seeing him for a period of time.”

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This hasn’t stopped Chelsea from making their move for him though. Per multiple reports, the Blues are looking to further bolster their attacking options and have identified Olise as the player to do this.

Mauricio Pochettino has already added Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku to his squad this summer and even though they have lost Christian Pulisic to AC Milan, the Stamford Bridge club are still fairly stacked in attack with Noni Madueke, Mykhailo Mudryk, Raheem Sterling, Hakim Ziyech and Angelo all still on their books.

Armando Broja is expected to have some involvement too while Romelu Lukaku and Callum Hudson-Odoi remain at the club at the time of writing. David Datro Fofana has been loaned out but is expected to have a part to play in the future.

To say Olise would have some competition for a place in the starting XI would be a bit of an understatement and yet Chelsea seems determined to bring him back to the club amid rival interest from Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain.

The left-footed attacker spent time at Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City as a youngster before joining the Reading academy in 2016. He made the switch to Crystal Palace in the 2021 summer transfer window after the Eagles agreed to pay his €9m release clause.

City are also interested in adding the youngster to their attack to replace Riyad Mahrez. The 32-year-old is expected to join Al-Hilal in the near future.

The treble winners have already lost a transfer battle to a Premier League rival this summer with Declan Rice opting to join Arsenal over a switch to the Etihad. Losing Olise to Chelsea would no doubt be a blow to City’s transfer plans. Especially when you consider their attacking depth for the new campaign, if Mahrez does leave, are looking a little thin.

Pep Guardiola likes to get creative with his set-ups but he’s only really going to have Erling Haaland, Julian Alvarez, Jack Grealish, Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva to call upon and it isn’t as though his No9 can plug gaps in wide areas if there’s an injury crisis.

On paper, Olise might not yet seem ready for a big six move. He has just four Premier League goals to his name across two seasons in the English top-flight. He’s racked up close to 4,000 minutes over that period too. This is something Hodgson noted last season, saying: "I think he needs to get more goals. He's got goals in him. He cut inside on his left foot on a few occasions and got good strikes away.”

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But his value might come from his creative numbers. Only Mohamed Salah (12) and Kevin de Bruyne (16) managed more assists than Olise (11) last term. His haul is even more impressive when you consider he was playing for a struggling Palace side for most of the season, though they did eventually finish 11th.

Olise, who has a maximum Estimated Transfer Value of €34m, has the potential to really scale his game with the right manager guiding him. He’s already fairly active without the ball and he doesn’t shy away from his defensive responsibilities.

Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) explained

Our Player Valuation Model calculates an Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) for more than 240.000 players in the world.

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Our Player Valuation Model calculates an Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) for more than 240.000 players in the world. It uses information on the player's skill, potential, performance, contract duration, position and other statistics to estimate an accurate ETV.

Read more here.

The 21-year-old carries the ball well and creates space, as well as opportunities, for teammates. He was involved in a lot of final-phase plays for Palace last season and in a better team, he’d be even more of a threat. Similar to how Grealish went up another level following his move from Aston Villa to Manchester City.

In the grand scheme of things, Olise would be one of the bargains of the summer. It might take a couple of years for him to fulfil his potential but the important thing is he has the potential there to be harnessed.

A move to City makes more sense but the opportunity to return to the club he spent seven years of his youth career at might be too tempting to turn down, even if the Chelsea project is a little erratic at the moment.

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