Manchester City and Manchester United were beaten to Michael Olise by Bayern Munich, despite making extraordinary late offers to take Crystal Palace’s £60million prized asset in 12 months’ time.
The versatile 22-year-old playmaker will work next season under Vincent Kompany and play alongside Harry Kane after the German giants came in with an offer he could not refuse. But both City and Manchester United are understood to have explored a deal which would have allowed Palace to keep Olise at Selhurst Park for another season.
Despite Pep Guadiola’s massive admiration for Olise, frustrated City could not take him to the Etihad this summer because of their ongoing concerns around financial fair play. Erik ten Hag, too, will be operating on a restricted budget this summer, with a net spend of £50m planned for, and United could not afford Olise’s massive price tag.
Kompany is a massive fan of his abilities having seen them first hand from his time in the Premier League at City and Burnley. The battle for Olise had developed into an epic contest with some of the biggest clubs in Europe vying for his services.
Palace – who accepted he wants to play in the Champions League – were only prepared to listen to offers between £60m and £70m to land the man who scored 10 times from just 14 league starts and assisted six times over the past season.
Chelsea had already offered a deal involving cash plus players for him – an offer rejected out of hand by Palace. Olise is also understood to have been unwilling to go to Stamford Bridge.
Newcastle had also expressed an interest in him but have also failed to come anywhere near Palace’s valuation. Liverpool are also massive fans of the player but did not enter the bidding.
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Palace boss Oliver Glasner knew that he would struggle to keep hold of the talented France star, who is set to play in Thierry Henry’s side at the Olympic Games this summer. "I think everybody knows he’s a good player," Glasner said in May. "He's fit now, I also think we found a very good position for him and he has a lot of individual qualities. He is a brilliant player, a great guy, but he also benefits from other players. Michael is brilliant.”
Bayern are planning to rebuild this summer after failing to win a trophy for the first time since 2012 under Thomas Tuchel last season. After a prolonged and messy recruitment process, Kompany was hired as manager and a significant overhaul of the squad is expected. Olise will follow his new manager and Harry Kane and Eric Dier in switching from the Premier League to Bayern.
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