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Transfer saga: Premier League club angry with Chelsea’s ‘excesses’
Premier League club Crystal Palace are angry with London rivals Chelsea. The Eagles are sad with the manner the Blues have pursued a deal for Michael Olise. Reports claim that Palace feel Chelsea0 have ‘crossed a line’ in their conduct.
Chelsea recently broke the Premier League transfer record for a second time this year. The north Londoners spent £115million on Moises Caicedo. The massive summer splurge looks to continue at Stamford Bridge after they submitted an offer that activates Olise’s release clause.
Olise’s £35m deal would likely become Chelsea’s ninth major signing this summer. Romeo Lavia meanwhile is also on the verge of a £58m switch from Southampton.
But, according to the Daily Mail, the move for Olise is threatening to turn ugly with Palace having communicated their grievances to their Chelsea counterparts over the manner in which they have turned the winger’s head.
Chelsea are expected to complete a transfer for Olise in a region of £35m deal
Despite interest from a number of Premier League giants this summer, including champions Manchester City, Palace were quietly confident that Olise was happy to stay at Selhurst Park.
But Chelsea have pushed hard to convince the France Under-21 international to swap south London for west London amid a backdrop of ‘tapping up’ concerns.
Palace believe Chelsea’s swoop may have contravened transfer rules and etiquette and have considered formally reporting their rivals ‘for making an illegal approach’.
It remains to be seen if they are prepared to lodge the complaint with the Premier League, while the Daily Mail’s report claims Chelsea are ‘comfortable’ with the way they have conducted themselves.
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Generally, clubs will informally speak to players before registering a formal approach – largely to avoid pursuing a player who does not want to join – but Palace feel Chelsea ‘overstepped the mark’ in this instance.
Having already lost Wilfried Zaha this summer, Palace had hoped Olise – who is currently recovering from injury – would remain at the club but now look set to lose him.
Speaking about the young winger’s future, manager Roy Hodgson told Sky Sports last week: ‘No one knows really at this moment in time. If there are clubs who are desperately or seriously preparing a bid and tempting him away then he’ll have a decision to make.
‘I can only wait and see if there are clubs who are going to come in and make those bids and tempt him away, and in that situation what decision is he going to make, because he also knows that we are really very keen to keep him here.
‘We really believe this is a good place for him and that we can provide him with a very good platform to go forward in his career. But unfortunately these matters are totally out of my hands – everything will depend I suppose on what happens in the future.
‘You can never be certain as a manager that the players you’ve got, you like and you want are always definitely going to stay because we have a transfer market. I can only hope that transfer market doesn’t on this occasion punish us by persuading one of our very, very important key players to move.’