The Frenchman has been on fire since returning from injury, and a dream move to Old Trafford beckons if he can keep it up
Manchester United were being billed as serious Premier League title contenders this time last year, and were seconds away from closing the gap on then-leaders Arsenal to just six points when making the trip to Crystal Palace. A first-half goal from Bruno Fernandes looked like being the difference between the two sides, until Casemiro gave away a needless free-kick after a reckless lunge on Wilfried Zaha.
Michael Olise stepped up some 25 yards from goal, with the acute angle very much in David de Gea's favour at his near post, and proceeded to curl an unstoppable shot into the net off the underside of the crossbar. The rest of the Palace squad mobbed Olise in recognition of a quite remarkable goal, but he barely raised a smile, and casually walked back to the centre-circle as if it was just another routine day at the office.
To the fans watching on from both sides, it was surprising to see such a young player in full control of his emotions. But to anyone that knew him well, it was just Olise being Olise.
“We’d say he’s a bit weird sometimes because when he scored goals, he sometimes wouldn’t celebrate," the Palace star's former team-mate at Reading, Michael Morrison, told in 2021. "We’d be like, ‘Mike, you’ve just scored an important goal and you’re just walking back?’. What’s he doing? Then he’d play two-touch with the manager in the gym, he’d win a point in that, and he’d be shouting and celebrating, but on a Saturday, he’d score a goal in front of the home end and just stand there. We never really worked out why. He could never give us an answer but he’s just different; a special player.”
According to , United have also seen something special in Olise since that fateful evening at Selhurst Park, and could make a formal offer for the 22-year-old in the summer window – but they will have to move quickly amid rival interest from Liverpool and Chelsea. Olise is suddenly the most in-demand winger in English football, and GOAL is on hand to explain why the hype around him is fully justified.
Getty ImagesVieira's challenge
Olise fully deserved to see his name plastered all over the back pages after his glorious strike against United, but it was only his second goal of the 2022-23 season, and Patrick Vieira acknowledged that he still had plenty of room for improvement.
"He needs to score more goals, he needs to make more assists," the former Palace boss said. "I will want him to be more involved in our open play, I will want him to be better defensively to work with the rest of the players around, to help the team out of possession, so there’s still a lot of elements that he needs to work on to improve himself, but the quality is there.
"I think his talent is there and then now, it’s just about how high he wants to go and that will be dictated by his commitment in everyday training – the sacrifice that he is prepared to make to fulfil that potential."
Vieira didn't get the chance to see Olise blossom, with the Palace board wielding the axe after the team's alarming slide towards the relegation zone. Roy Hodgson was subsequently drafted back in for a second spell in charge at Selhurst Park, and he steered the Eagles to safety in assured fashion after taking Olise under his wing.
The France Under-21 international didn't add to his haul of goals, but he provided six assists in Palace's final nine games of the season, which attracted the attention of Chelsea. The Blues reportedly triggered the £35m ($45m) release clause in Olise's contract last August, but he ended up rejecting a switch to Stamford Bridge in favour of signing a new four-year deal at Palace.
Olise was then forced to miss the start of the 2023-24 campaign with a hamstring injury, but he's been in scintillating form since returning in November, with five goals to his name in eight appearances. Vieira may be long gone, but Olise accepted his challenge, and is now beginning to look like a player capable of making a difference for any of the top six clubs in the Premier League.
AdvertisementGetty'An incredible player'
Olise's latest stellar display came in Palace's 3-1 home win against Brentford, which saw him score the first Premier League brace of his career. The Bees took an early lead at Selhurst Park, only for Olise to equalise after ghosting in to meet a Jordan Ayew cross the back post.
Eberechi Eze then put Palace in front shortly before the break, and Olise rounded off the win early in the second half with a superb solo goal. The former Reading prospect picked the ball up in the middle of Brentford's half and dribbled past three defenders before applying a composed finish that left Mark Flekken with no chance in the opposing net.
That effort capped a match-winning performance that even drew recognition from Thomas Frank, with the Brentford boss seen offering Olise a handshake at full-time and patting him affectionately on the chest. Palace found themselves slipping towards the bottom of the table again in the absence of Olise, and Eze, in the first half of the season, but they could still push for a top-10 finish if their star duo can now remain fit.
“Michael Olise’s an incredible player — it’s good to play with players like that on the same wavelength,” Eze said after the game. Palace suffered a major blow when Zaha left the club to take on a new challenge at Galatasaray in the summer, but Olise is the man supporters now look to when Hodgson's side need inspiration.
“Every club needs players that get the crowd buzzing and we have been blessed with Wilf through the years, and now we have Olise," Hodgson beamed earlier in December. The Palace boss had also described the moment Olise signed a new contract as a "red letter day", but he won't be naive enough to believe the talented attacker can be kept from the Premier League elite for another year.
The question is: where is the best place for Olise to reach the next level?
Getty 'Way better than Antony'
At the moment, Liverpool have arguably the most fearsome forward line in the country, with star man Mohamed Salah supported by the likes of Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo. Jurgen Klopp's side might well lift the Premier League trophy again come May, but Olise would struggle to get into their line-up next season, especially given the fact Salah still occupies his preferred position on the right wing.
Competition for places out wide is also fierce at Chelsea right now, as Maurico Pochettino toils to find the best combination from a talent pool consisting of Raheem Sterling, Cole Palmer, Christopher Nkunku, Mykahilo Mudryk and Noni Madueke. If Olise does leave Palace in the summer, he needs to be guaranteed regular minutes, which wouldn't be the case at Anfield or Stamford Bridge.
It's a different story at Old Trafford right now, though. United have by far the worst attacking record in the top 10 of the Premier League, and that's mainly down to the ineffectiveness of Marcus Rashford and Antony. The Red Devils relied on Rashford for the majority of their goals on their way to a third-place finish last season, but he's been unable to sustain that form as Erik ten Hag's side have suffered an alarming decline as a collective.
United will almost certainly stick by Rashford, though, given his status as a homegrown academy graduate. The same cannot be said for Antony, who has done absolutely nothing to justify his £85m ($108m) price tag since moving to Old Trafford from Ajax in 2022.
Even Ten Hag has been forced to concede Antony is falling short of expectations, and Olise would certainly offer a far greater threat if he was to replace the Brazilian on the right of United's failing attack. Former Palace striker Clinton Morrison has been among those to point out the clear gulf in quality between the two men, while also revealing how much the Red Devils would have to pay to prise Olise away from Selhurst Park.
"He is a superstar. He would give Man United goals and assists – he can do whatever he wants," Morrison told earlier this month. "I think he is a fantastic player. He’s going to be top, top. I speak to [Palace sporting director] Dougie Freedman about him a lot. It would cost big, big money to sign Olise. At least £60-70 million. He is still at a young age. I think he moves on in the summer, without a shadow of a doubt. He has got it all. If you want to do the comparisons with him and Antony, he is way better than Antony.”
Getty ImagesHamstring concerns
Olise may have picked up the Man of the Match award after Palace's win over Brentford, but the excitement over his dazzling display was dampened when he limped off in stoppage-time clutching his hamstring. Hodgson later rubbished suggestions that the Frenchman had suffered a reoccurrence of the issue that saw him sidelined between August and November, but also ruled him out of Palace's FA Cup third-round tie against Everton on January 4.
According to the , Palace are hopeful that Olise will return in early February, meaning he will potentially miss just two league games, against Arsenal and Sheffield United. As great as Olise has been when available, his fitness record is starting to become a real concern.
Hodgson has also fielded questions on whether it would be best to start managing Olise's minutes when he does return, with it suggested he could lean on Palace's sports science team to detect when he is most susceptible to another injury. However, the Eagles boss honed in on the downside of taking off a talismanic player for the smaller clubs in the division.
"It might be different at the top teams if the player you take off is replaced by another £40m, £50m or £60m star. … It’s going to be harder for the lesser clubs, the ones in the bottom half, to do it than the ones in the top half," he began. "They were telling me the Chelsea bench (had cost) two or three times more in terms of transfer value than our whole team, so maybe they can do it and take a £70m player off and put an £80m on and no one would bat an eyelid.
“But if I take Olise off in particular and put someone on that people don’t regard as being anywhere near the same level as Olise, I don’t think the crowd or press are going to understand it. They’ll understand it even less if we lose. Everyone is going to say ‘What the hell’s going on?’, especially if he comes off protesting.”
If Palace are to avoid another gruelling relegation battle, they need Olise on the pitch, it's as simple as that. Hodgson and his staff will do their best to make sure he's in top condition, but there's no guarantee his body will hold up over the next few months.
At the moment, those question marks over his fitness are the only thing that could dissuade the likes of United and Liverpool from launching a formal bid in the summer window. United, in particular, cannot afford to see another significant investment backfire after the failures of Antony and Jadon Sancho, who cost the club a combined total of £158m ($201m).