Exclusive: Chelsea confident over Michael Olise, Crystal Palace sources deny new contract offer

Chelsea are understood to be confident over the potential transfer of Crystal Palace winger Michael Olise, with Manchester United and Newcastle now looking to be out of the race for his signature.

Sources close to Palace have denied that Olise has been offered a new contract, CaughtOffside understands, with the position of the club being that the Frenchman is for sale for the widely-reported £60million release clause fee.

Chelsea are optimistic about their chances of signing Olise, but Bayern Munich may also still be in the race, with the Blues keen to ensure they don’t over-spend on new signings this summer.

Olise’s asking price has proven a problem for other clubs, with Newcastle simply unable to afford it, while Man Utd are focusing on other areas of their squad as a priority, such as centre-back, left-back and striker.

While United are understood to appreciate Olise, they would only enter the race for his signature if there were some sign that Palace were open to negotiating a different kind of package for the 22-year-old, which looks out of the question at the moment.

Olise transfer: Will Chelsea win the race?

Olise looks an outstanding talent who could strengthen a number of top clubs, so Chelsea will do very well if they can snap him up this summer, when they urgently need to improve their squad so as to be in a position to improve on last season and get back into the Champions League.

New manager Enzo Maresca could surely do with looking for a replacement for inconsistent trio Mykhailo Mudryk, Raheem Sterling and Noni Madueke, and Olise looks like one of the better options on the market in that position right now.

United would surely also do well to target someone like that as an upgrade on recent flop signings like Antony and Jadon Sancho, but it perhaps also makes sense that they’re looking at numerous other problem positions in their squad.

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