‘He would have deserved it’ – Crystal Palace boss on Olise missing Euro call-up for France and possible Olympic inclusion

BY ANDREW MCSTEEN

France manager Didier Deschamps named his squad for the European Championships this summer on Thursday, with Crystal Palace attacking midfielder Michael Olise missing out.

With 10 goals and five assists in 13 starts in an injury-curtailed season, the 22-year-old – who is still eligible to play for France, England, Algeria and Nigeria – is in blistering form and was many observers’ pick for a place in Deschamps squad, even though he is yet to make his senior debut.

“When you see him playing in the last weeks, he has very big arguments [to be in the squad], he’s really showing some outstanding performances,” said Glasner.

“But I don’t want to give advice to Didier Deschamps. Their squad qualified; they have players who were responsible for qualifying to the Euros and it’s not so easy then to drop them and say ‘okay thank you very much, you did good work qualifying, but now with the Euros, thank you’ and then nominate another player.

“When nominating a team it’s difficult. Sometimes you have to take very, very difficult decisions but from my point of view, with everything I saw from Michael, everything I see every day, with his talent, with quality, with his competitiveness – in the game, he can still switch one gear higher, or maybe two – I would say yes, he would have deserved it, but it’s the decision of Didier Deschamps.”

A second chance for Olise to represent his country could still come this summer, but on the biggest sporting stage of all – the Olympic Games, which is being held in Paris.

In early July, Theirry Henry will name his mainly U23 squad for Paris 2024 with Olise almost guaranteed to be named in it – but Glasner admitted he would have mixed feelings about it, with the Olympics coming right in the middle of pre-season preparations and finishing just six days before the opening Premier League weekend.

“On the one side I would smile because we always want the best for our players,” said Glasner when asked about Olise being nominated for Paris 2024.

“That they can play such a tournament is great for them personally, but for the manager’s heart it is bleeding because we want our players [for pre-season]. With the Euros, with the Copa America, we have players not available for at least the first three weeks, maybe four weeks, of pre-season, but you can ask all the clubs; they all have the same issue.

“We’ll see what happens, [but] we have to give the players a rest whenever it is, whether he’s nominated for the Euros, whether he plays, whether he’s nominated for the Olympics and if he wants to go there; we have to give them some rest whenever it is.

“It’s our responsibility, but at the moment, he (Olise) was not nominated for the Euros and he has six weeks off like everybody else. Then we’ll see what happens with the Olympics.”