Edmund Brack’s verdict as Michael Olise moves closer to Crystal Palace exit and Bayern switch
Michael Olise looked set to complete a move to Bayern Munich as our paper went to press – with the German giants set to spend in the region of £50million on the Crystal Palace attacker. Here Edmund Brack, who reports on the Eagles for the South London Press, gives his reaction to a big departure.
Michael Olise has been nothing short of a joy to watch in a Crystal Palace shirt. It has felt like both a pleasure and a privilege.
The Eagles have had a model and strategy which they have pushed towards in the last few years – to buy excellent young prospects that they can sell for a big profit – but that doesn’t ease the pain of selling your best players.
If the deal with Bayern Munich goes through then Olise, 22, will leave Selhurst Park with many impactful and noteworthy moments from his three seasons in SE25.
From his impressive early cameo against Leicester City in October 2021 under Patrick Vieira, where his introduction as a substitute helped the Eagles come from 2-0 down to grab a point, to winning Premier League games with ruthless consistency during the latter stages of last season, his development has been outstanding.
Such is the attacker’s influence since signing from Reading in 2021, it would be fair to say he has the highest ceiling of any player to have ever played for Crystal Palace. It was a bitter blow to see such limited football from Olise last season due to injuries, but when he was on the pitch, he was devastatingly clinical – 16 Premier League goal contributions in 15 starts highlights the rapid upward trajectory of the ex-Manchester City and Chelsea youngster.
But while the Eagles look set to receive a club-record fee from Bayern Munich for the mercurial winger, the reality is that Palace will probably receive half of what his true value is.
Palace would have been unable to convince Olise to join initially in 2021 without capitalising on his £8m release clause from Reading and sporting director Dougie Freedman’s sales pitch presented the South London club as a stepping stone towards the elite level.
The Eagles also managed to squeeze one more season out of Olise when he was desperately wanted by Chelsea last season. He committed to a new four-year deal with the slightly higher release clause working for all parties involved.
However, you only have to look at transfer deals in recent windows – Jadon Sancho joining Manchester United for £70million and the Red Devils shelling out £86m for Antony – to leave a slightly sour taste, both about his departure and the fee Palace will receive for one of the most exciting youngsters in football.
But with Palace’s sustainable model, buying a player from the Championship and selling them to six-time Champions League winners is a success. The plan has been executed to perfection.
Just with Cristiano Ronaldo moving from Manchester United to Real Madrid and Harry Kane switching his beloved Tottenham Hotspur for Bayern, there is a football food chain.
It is some consolation also that we won’t have to endure Olise playing against us in the Premier League, with Chelsea, Newcastle and Manchester City all keen this time around.
And he will be going to the sixth most expensive club in the world, as ranked by the Deloitte Money League in 2023.
If a player is going to leave, this is as palatable as losing a prized gem can be.
Alas, Palace looked to be on the cusp of something special with the way they stormed the closing weeks of the last Premier League campaign under newly-appointed boss Oliver Glasner.
Blowing away teams at will and turning up expecting to win has not been felt once since promotion from the Championship in 2013, but the spell towards the end of last season was unique
Palace were playing champagne football towards the end of last season, with Olise, Eberechi Eze and Jean-Philippe Mateta forming a formidable front three under Glasner, all hitting exceptional form as the club recorded a top-10 finish.
The arrivals of Chadi Riad and Daichi Kamada – two early shrewd additions to the squad – showed Palace were being proactive and looking to build on potentially cracking European football for the first time in their history.
Centre-back Riad will provide competition to the defensive unit and Kamada is a player who Glasner has worked with before and is a different type of attacker to Olise and Eze, bridging the gap to youngsters Matheus Franca and Jesurun Rak-Sakyi.
But there is now a massive hole in the squad, with the biggest talent and match-winner leaving.
Palace had to cope with a similar high-level departure last summer when Wilfried Zaha, 31, turned down a club-record contract to sign with Galatasaray.
But the Croydon-born winger’s departure was a different beast. Palace had the best years of Zaha’s career and managed to control his situation at the football club with continuously improved contracts without release clauses.
Palace were right to quote near enough £100m every time a club came for Zaha – he guaranteed Premier League safety and carried that burden on his shoulders the majority of his time after returning from Manchester United in 2014.
Olise, compared to Wilf’s exit, has his best years ahead of him and will go on to the very top of the game.
Zaha’s departure was also smoothed over by Eze and Olise already being in the Palace squad.
The question is now: ‘How do you replace a special talent such as Michael Olise?’
If Palace are getting more than £50m for Olise, then the money needs to be spent on two players who can bolster the attacking options.
Hull City’s Jaden Philogene, Club Brugge’s Antonio Nusa and Atlanta’s Thiago Almada all appear to be Palace-type players – another centre-forward to provide competition to Mateta, with Odsonne Edouard’s future uncertain, should also be a must.