‘I JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND’: GABRIEL AGBONLAHOR BAFFLED BY MAJOR CRYSTAL PALACE DECISION

Former Premier League striker Gabriel Agbonlahor is baffled by Crystal Palace’s decision to hand Michael Olise a £35m release clause.

According to BBC Sport, Chelsea are set to sign Michael Olise after triggering the release clause in his Crystal Palace contract.

Speaking on talkSPORT about the winger’s proposed move to Stamford Bridge, Agbonlahor said: “Olise, I can’t understand, why would you put it in for £35m? I just don’t understand.”

The 21-year-old is currently out injured, so it may be a while before Chelsea fans get to see him make his debut should the transfer go through.

Palace are at least set to make a profit on Olise after signing him from Reading for £8m in 2021.

Another huge blow for Roy Hodgson

The Eagles have already lost Wilfried Zaha, so to watch Olise depart as well will really hit Hodgson hard.

That is two extremely talented wide men the former England manager will now be without for the 2023/24 campaign.

You now have to wonder how he will replace Olise’s creativity. Last season, the France U21 international provided 11 assists for Palace.

Zaha was also the south London club’s talisman who was relied upon to score goals. In the 2021/22 Premier League campaign, he netted 14 times in 33 outings.

Palace now face a real difficult task finding successors to Zaha and Olise, but they absolutely have to. If not, you suspect that a relegation battle awaits them.

The Selhurst Park faithful will be disappointed to see the latter follow the former out of the exit door, but there is not much Palace can do because of his release clause.

The club could not really do anything about Zaha either, with the 30-year-old deciding not to extend his contract before joining Galatasaray.

Going forward, it will now be interesting to see how Palace deal with contract situations and targets who want release clauses in their deals.