Chelsea remain interested in Crystal Palace winger Michael Olise and are aiming to complete a deal despite his absence through injury.
Olise sustained a hamstring injury during the Under-21 European Championships and is expected to miss the first few months of the 2023/24 season.
The Frenchman might be injured, but that has not stopped Chelsea from expressing an interest in signing him before the summer transfer window closes.
Olise reportedly has a £35million release clause in his contract and has also attracted interest from Manchester City.
According to The Times, Chelsea are ‘aiming to complete a deal’ to sign Olise from Crystal Palace.
Eagles manager Roy Hodgson spoke to the media on Friday ahead of the new Premier League season and the 76-year-old says he has no intentions of taking things easy just yet after agreeing to stay on in charge at Selhurst Park.
The former England boss returned for a second spell at his boyhood club in March following the departure of Patrick Vieira.
Having safely guided the Eagles clear of a relegation battle at the time into the safety of a mid-table finish, Hodgson is ready to attack the new campaign head on as Palace begin life without Wilfried Zaha, who completed a summer move to Turkish giants Galatasaray.
“I wanted to carry on because the club asked me to carry on,” said Hodgson, who has also managed Switzerland and Finland, counting Inter Milan, Blackburn, Fulham, Liverpool and West Brom among the many clubs of which he has taken charge during a lengthy coaching career.
“Basically, because I so much enjoyed last season working with the team that I was able to work with for the last 10 games, the opportunity to carry on working with them was one that I certainly had no intention of resisting.”
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Hodgson continued in his press conference: “The excitement, the build-up – after what seems like quite a long pre-season, especially these days with travelling – all of that really is for this moment, which is going to start for me at 3pm tomorrow afternoon.
“That’s we’ve been working for and looking forward to. That’s the lifeblood of our jobs, so I have just as much excitement and just as much hope that things are going to go our way just as I did before my very first game, which was a very long time ago.”
Despite the loss of Zaha, so long the club’s talisman, Palace have strengthened with the addition of midfielder Jefferson Lerma following the end of his contract at Bournemouth.
“The fans will like him. He’s a good signing, there’s no doubt about that,” Hodgson said of the 28-year-old Colombia international.
“We were lucky to get him – his quality as a player, his experience, his character, the type of football he plays, his whole-hearted efforts which he has made for so many years now for Bournemouth.”
Palace will be without several players for the season-opening trip to Sheffield United, including France Under-21 international Michael Olise and Will Hughes, as well as summer signing Matheus Franca.
Hodgson is expecting a stern test against the Blades, who secured a return to the top flight with a second-placed finish in the Sky Bet Championship last season.
“Sheffield United is a difficult place to go. Like ourselves, they have a really good support – a support that gets behind the team,” the Palace boss said.
“We expect them to be really geared up for the game, fired up for the game. We expect to be put under pressure from both the players on the field and the fans behind them.
“These are things you have to learn to resist and find a way of resisting, and then hopefully we can play the football I’m hoping we’re going to be capable of playing this season.”
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