Football scout Sean Conlon has claimed that Crystal Palace star Michael Olise can go to “the very top” ahead of his reunion with Chelsea on Sunday. The 20-year-old was a former academy player with the Blues until he left aged 14, one of a number of promising players to have come through the Cobham academy.
The forward made the move to Selhurst Park in the summer from Reading, where he made his senior breakthrough in 2020. While he has been eased in, Olise has shown sparks of what he is capable of, scoring four and assisting eight across all competitions this season.
Eagles manager Patrick Vieira has been full of praise for the forward, but has challenged him to stay focused on progression, saying last month: “What is important for Michael [Olise] is that yes, at the moment he is playing well, but his focus and concentration has to be on Crystal Palace and how to work well in training and keep performing like he's been doing in the last couple of games.”
READ MORE: Paul Merson and Michael Owen agree on Chelsea Liverpool outcome in FA Cup semi-final clash
It’s his continued impressive performances that have caught the eye, with reports linking both Chelsea and Arsenal with a move for the future. The France youth international may have a chance to impress yet again on Sunday, with Palace facing Thomas Tuchel’s men in the FA Cup semi-final.
However, Olise could have already been a first-team Blues or Gunners player at this point if he wasn’t released by both at a young age from the academy. Speaking to BBC Sport, football scout and coach Sean Conlon discussed his interactions with Olise as a youth player: “We had Michael when he was young but when he left Chelsea when he was 14, that was when we really got involved with him again.
"We were offering him support, working with him mentally and by giving him games. I played in a really tough, aggressive, seven-a-side league with all semi-pro players and we were short on players. I invited Michael, knowing he could cope, and he was the best player every week even at 14. He was so slight as a youngster, he needed game intelligence, add that to the character from his journey - it makes him the full package. He can go to the very, very top. Everybody at Chelsea is so pleased with his success."
For Chelsea especially, the forward joins a list of players that had been released from the academy only to be targeted again in the future. One of which is West Ham’s Declan Rice, who may cost upwards of £100million if they do want to bring him back to the club.
There’s no guarantee that either would be the player they are now without leaving Cobham or Hale End, but it comes as a potentially costly mistake if they need to pay out to re-sign former academy starlets. While that was the past, the future for Olise is bright and his more immediate future consists of a match against his former academy side on Sunday.
