Michael Olise Joins Crystal Palace: The Verdict

Teen-whiz Michael Olise has become Patrick Vieira’s first signing as Crystal Palace manager, and comes at a bargain price. What will he bring to Selhurst Park, and where does this leave Reading?

Seven goals and 12 assists in 44 Championship matches over the course of the 2020/21 season has underpinned a meteoric rise for 19 year-old Olise. Named the EFL’s Young Player of the Year in April, the Royals knew that their star-boy was to be in the shop window this summer.

Rumoured attention from the likes of Liverpool and Leeds came as no surprise to Reading fans, but now two months post-season, some were beginning to wonder whether owner Dai Yongge was going to come good on his promise to keep their best players at the Madejski Stadium. Unfortunately, it has transpired that the phantom release clause in Olise’s contract – of which nobody quite seemed to be sure existed – did.

A reported eight million pounds later and Michael Olise has become a Premier League player. It’s something that he and Reading narrowly missed out on the opportunity to do in the form of a final Play-Off shaped dash towards the promised land, as a calamitous end of season run of form saw them finish seventh. Olise’s move isn’t a shock to Reading fans, but naturally the cut-price deal that Palace have got themselves, despite becoming a club record sale, leaves a somewhat sour taste in the mouth.

But, given Reading’s current FFP-related misdemeanours and subsequent financial issues, Olise’s move may be a blessing in disguise for the Berkshire side. However, the question is:

Who has got the better side of the deal?

What can Crystal Palace fans expect from Michael Olise?

Olise becomes one of a long line of homegrown talents to leave Reading and move onto bigger and better things, having joined the Royals’ academy set up as a 14 year old in 2016. Making his first-team debut under Mark Bowen in March 2020, Olise was used fruitfully by Veljko Paunovic across Reading’s front three, primarily in the number ten attacking midfield role.

Sometimes Olise was utilised on either wing by Paunovic, and was effective. However, it’s in a more central position that the teenager really shines. Often dropping slightly deeper into midfield to act as a ball carrier into attack, Olise’s technical ability and sublime locker of tricks allows him to unlock defences singlehandedly in his play throughout the attacking third.

When deployed as a winger, Olise tends to cut inside rather than deliver a cross. However, his wand of a left foot renders him generally effective from set-plays and, goalscoring wise, Olise is capable of the truly fantastic. His two stand out goals last season came against QPR at Loftus Road, almost effortlessly curling the ball home from around 30 yards out on his birthday in the 89th minute, and against basement boys Derby County at the Madejski, where he rifled home Reading’s opener with a beautifully crisp strike from the top of the box.

Olise is undoubtedly a good signing for the Eagles, and a shrewd piece of business. Patrick Vieira has signalled his intent to freshen Palace’s squad with exciting players, and Olise fits that bill. The 19-year-old will bring a pizzazz to Selhurst Park, and at the price Palace have captured him for, calling the deal a ‘bargain’ for the London side would undoubtedly be an understatement of extreme proportion.

“We have the tools in our football club to make him a better player, and we’ve known him quite well because he’s a player the football club have been following for a long time. I think it is important to refresh the squad, to bring some new faces, to bring young talent here, and this is a really good signing for us” – Vieira via Crystal Palace FC

Of course, Olise is not the finished product. Some Reading fans have noted him portraying a slightly overly-relaxed demeanour on the pitch, and others have questioned his attitude from time to time. However, it wouldn’t be fair to put this label on Olise. He has been nothing but beneficial to Reading during his time at the club, and leaves as perhaps the brightest academy-grown talent Reading have ever produced.

Although Gylfi Sigurdsson may rival that.

Where does this leave Reading?

Quite simply, with even less players than they had previously. The Royals really are in dire straights at the moment, which may seem a bizarre statement to make to those who don’t follow them regularly, especially after the club’s second best season since they were relegated from the Premier League in 2013.

Reading, simply, don’t have enough players. The club have admirably reduced the bloated squad that Mark Bowen had inherited in November 2019, doing the same to an unsustainable wage bill in the process. The problem is that Reading now don’t have enough established players to fill a starting eleven and bench in full.

The lack of squad depth was a major factor in Reading’s collapse last season, with a tired and injury stricken squad failing to clear the final hurdle. Reading were a winger or two away from a solid Play-Off spot, and despite a productive season last year, the forecast for the 21/22 campaign looks increasingly bleak.

As things stand, the Royals have 15 ‘established’ players, using EFL-specific terminology. An established player counts as one who has made at least five first team starts for any given team, and the fact that Reading only have 15 of these is A) pretty bleak, but B) does allow them to make free transfer or loan signings whilst they remain under a transfer embargo.

As previously mentioned, the club has worked hard to reduce the wage bill and the signings made last summer were sensible – and reportedly on sensible wages, too. However, this doesn’t seem to have yet persuaded the EFL that Reading can, in overly simple terms, be trusted with their credit card.

Hopefully, the revenue received from Olise’s sale will contribute to an easing of Reading’s restrictions and allow them to add to the squad. Ex-Everton winger Yannick Bolasie and ex-Cardiff winger Junior Hoilett have recently been linked with a move to the Madejski.

Perhaps the biggest miscarriage of footballing justice for Reading is that their three brightest prospects over the last four years or so (Danny Loader (Porto), Omar Richards (Bayern Munich) and Olise himself) have left the club for a combined total of £8 million. Eight million pounds. A substantial sum of money, but not in this context.

Olise’s departure signals three things. Firstly, Crystal Palace are entering a new and energetic era under Patrick Vieira. Secondly, that Reading’s squad woes grow deeper, and without signings, am even tougher season lies ahead. And, thirdly, that Reading’s academy is showing no let up in the quality of goods it continues to roll off its particularly successful production line.

Olise or no Olise, that’s something to be very, very proud of.

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