Michael Olise’s proposed move to Chelsea has collapsed after the winger chose to sign a new four-year contract with Crystal Palace.
Chelsea had triggered a £35 million ($44.7m) release clause in the 21-year-old’s previous deal, but that has been superseded by a new agreement that Palace chairman, Steve Parish, confirmed on Thursday.
“I’m absolutely delighted to announce Olise has decided to commit his future to Crystal Palace football club and this afternoon signed a new four-year deal with the club,” Parish wrote on Instagram.
Olise’s new deal is a dramatic twist given that Chelsea were confident of finalising terms in the coming days.
However, their initial move had created ill-feeling with some senior figures at Palace, who were thought to have believed Chelsea used questionable conduct to sign Oliseh.
For their part, Chelsea believe they did nothing wrong.
Olise was expected to depart until a late intervention from Palace, with sources telling ESPN the club have doubled Oliseh’s salary to stay at Selhurst Park.
“It’s the best possible news we could have,” Palace manager Roy Hodgson said, adding that, “The decision has been [Olise’s]. I must congratulate Steve Parish and Dougie Freedman on a fantastic job.”
It was unclear at this stage whether the new deal contains another release clause but regardless, Chelsea are now switching attention to other targets including Nottingham Forest’s Brennan Johnson.
Forest value Johnson at close to £50m and has previously interested both West Ham and Tottenham.
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