Michael Olise to Spurs?

The Eagles forward has been one of the standout players in the Premier League so far this season, and he has been recently linked with a move to Tottenham in January.

Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs have been very active in the 2024 summer transfer window and have already signed two players as of the time of writing. The first player to come through the door was former Chelsea forward Timo Werner, who has joined the Lilywhites on a season-long loan with an option to buy from German giants RB Leipzig. The second and most recent signing was Romanian central defender Radu Dragusin, who recently joined from Italian Serie A club Genoa for a fee of £26.7 million.

There have been several rumours linking the North London club with other players, including Crystal Palace’s French forward Michael Olise.

Olise is predominantly a right winger, but over the course of his career, he has played some football as an attacking midfielder, right midfielder, central midfielder, left winger, second striker, and left midfielder.

Whilst Crystal Palace may be looking over their shoulders in the Premier League season with 5 points separating them and the relegations zone, Olise has been their outstanding player so far this season. In the 9 appearances he has made, the Frenchman has scored 5 goals with 1 assist to boot as of the time of writing. He was injured at the start of the 2023/24 season, with his return to action being on 8th November 2023.

Whilst Spurs have the second best goal scoring record of any team with 44, Olise would provide more goals and likely create some with the forward also being very technically gifted.

Only fellow Frenchman Odsonne Edouard has scored more for Palace in the Premier League than Olise, with 6 goals to his name. Compared to Spurs players, Olise’s record of 5 goals has him level with Dejan Kulusevski in the Spurs squad. The Swede has scored the third most league goals for the Lilywhites so far this term.

We will now rewind to the start of Michael Olise’s career. He began in youth football with Spurs’ North London rivals Arsenal at the age of 8 in 2009. He was not with the Gunners for long, with him going on to sign for Chelsea that same year.

He then went on to spend no less than 7 years with the Blues before he signed for Manchester City in 2016. Olise would only be with the Cityzens for one year, with the forward signing for Reading in 2017.

In the 2017/18 campaign, he made 6 appearances in the Under 18 Premier League for the Royals. The 2018/19 season did see Olise predominantly play youth football, making 19 appearances across all competitions with 4 goals and 1 assist to his name. In this season, he was also promoted into the first team squad, making his senior debut in a 3 – 0 Championship defeat against Leeds United on 12th March 2019.

He then signed his first professional contract with Reading on 15th July 2019 – the contract would initially last for three years. The 2019/20 campaign saw him make 19 Championship appearances for the Royals, contributing 1 assist. Reading finished 14th with 56 points that season.

It was in the 2020/21 campaign that Michael Olise scored his first senior goal, which came in a 2 – 0 home win against Barnsley on 19th September 2020. By the end of that particular Championship campaign, the French forward scored 7 goals and got 12 assists in 44 appearances in the second tier. That was an impressive 19 goal contributions.

This season saw Olise and Reading finish in 7th place with 70 points to their name. They missed out on the promotion play-offs by a margin of 7 points.

This impressive form prompted interest from Premier League club Crystal Palace, who signed him for a reported fee of approximately £8.37 million on 8th July 2021. He signed an initial five-year contract with the Eagles that would expire on 30th June 2026.

Olise’s first season with Crystal Palace (2021/22) saw him make 31 appearances in all competitions for the senior side. 26 of these came in the Premier League, where he scored 2 goals and got 5 assists, which helped his new side to a respectable 12th place finish with 48 points to their name from their 38 matches.

In that year’s FA Cup, the French forward scored 2 goals and got 3 assists in 5 appearances. Palace got to the semi-finals, where the Eagles were defeated 2 – 0 by eventual winners Chelsea.

Last season, 2022/23, it was Olise’s best in a Crystal Palace shirt to date. In 37 appearances in the Premier League, he scored 2 goals and got 11 assists to boot – this was 13 goal contributions in total. Following that season, Michael Olise did sign a contract extension to 30th June 2027, but this has not stopped speculation around his future with the South London club.

Spurs’ next game will see them take on Thomas Frank’s Brentford in the Premier League on Wednesday, 31st January 2024, in a 19:30 Kick-Off at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Then, following a trip to Goodison Park to face Sean Dyche’s Everton (Saturday 3rd February, 12:30 KO), Ange Postecoglou’s Lilywhites side have two consecutive home league games against Brighton (10th February, 15:00 KO) and Gary O’Neil’s Wolves on Saturday 17th February 2024 in a 15:00 Kick Off.

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