Chelsea have missed out on the signing of Crystal Palace winger Michael Olise, who is now set to join Bayern Munich.
Michael Olise will have part of his medical with Bayern Munich on Sunday after interest from Chelsea, according to transfer expert Fabrizio Romano.
While Chelsea were keen on signing the 22-year-old this summer, a report from The Athletic claimed that they pulled out of the race for his signature because of the numbers involved.
However, it does not look like the above was the only thing that made a deal difficult for the Blues.
Both parties seemed to have frustrations about another matter.
Michael Olise and Chelsea frustrated with each other
Olise is currently with France’s Olympic squad ahead of this summer’s Games.
He looks desperate to compete at the event, with journalist Simon Phillips claiming that his desire to play in Paris became an issue during Chelsea’s pursuit of him.
On his Substack, he wrote: “This is definitely one of the (smaller) reasons Olise and Chelsea got frustrated with each other by the way. He wanted to play at the Olympics, as I reported at the time.”
Having denied Enzo Fernandez permission to join up with Argentina for the Olympics, the Blues likely had a similar stance with Olise.
And it looks like that is one reason why the two got frustrated with each other.
Chelsea should not have had a problem with Michael Olise competing at the Olympics
Of course, had Chelsea signed Olise, it would have been helpful to have him available from the off.
However, they still would have survived if he did miss the first couple of games of the season.
After all, the Blues still have Cole Palmer and Noni Madueke, who can both play on the right.
In the end, though, the biggest sticking point in Chelsea’s bid to sign Olise this summer was the total price of the deal it seems, not the France U21 international’s participation at the Olympics.
It will now be interesting to see who Chelsea bring in instead, if anyone at all.
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