Alex Washington

As I was stood in the away end at Loftus Road last night, part of me wished that Michael Olise had never played for Crystal Palace. I was watching us labour past QPR’s B team, lacking any sort of attacking rhythm, he was scoring a brace on his Champions League debut. Was it actually a curse? Have my expectations been irreversibly changed? Will I forever be chasing the high of Olise x Eze x Mateta? I’d gotten used to watching a certain level of player at Selhurst Park. I’ve seen players who were probably too good for us. I’ve seen players who were definitely too good for us. But I’ve only seen one player who was practically playing a different sport to the rest of his teammates. Painfully too good for us. Not Eze. Not Zaha. Not Moses. Michael Olise. When you support a team of Palace’s size, you learn to appreciate football beyond trophies. I take pride in how we develop young, promising talent into top level footballers and Olise is the absolute peak of that process. He joined Palace in 2021 as an introverted kid whose quirks and awkward persona were often misconstrued as an attitude problem. He didn’t appear to appreciate his team-mates or coaches. He didn’t even follow them on Instagram, god forbid. Fast forward to May 2024: he’d just whipped in his second and Palace’s fourth goal in a drubbing of Man Utd in SE25. Olise, notorious for his nonchalant (or nonexistent) celebrations, runs to Oliver Glasner, his manager, with an enormous grin on his face and embraces him. If there was ever an evening to epitomise what Olise had blossomed into, it was that one. A world class footballer, team-mate, and person. I’m not a tribal Palace fan. I enjoy watching players hit their potential. When it became apparent that Olise was off to Bavaria, there was no ill-feeling in South London. We did our job. We gave him the platform he needed to grow into one of the best wingers in world football. It was time for him to go and show everyone else what we already knew. That he belongs at the very top. And the knowledge that we played any kind of role in getting him there makes me very proud. ******* Words by @TalkCPFC, on the brilliant Michael Olise.