- EXCLUSIVE from Graeme Bailey
Crystal Palace are looking at two Championship stars should Michael Olise leave the Premier League outfit with Sunderland’s Jack Clarke and Hull City’s Jaden Philogene on The Eagles radar.
HITC Football understands that, with one of the finest attacking talents outside the so-called ‘big six’ expected to be the subject of heavy interest over the summer, Crystal Palace are planning to return to a familiar hunting ground in search of a replacement.
Michael Olise is reportedly keen on a move to his boyhood club – Manchester United – three years after Palace snapped up the silky Frenchman in a bargain £8 million deal from Reading.
Under their highly-rated director of football Dougie Freedman, the London outfit have made a habit of bringing some of the Championship’s top talent to Selhurst Park. And HITC have now been told that Crystal Palace are eyeing up two second-tier stars should Olise depart.
Crystal Palace eye two Michael Olise replacements
Sunderland talisman Jack Clarke and Hull City winger Jaden Philogene are candidates to follow in the footsteps of Olise, Ebere Eze and Adam Wharton.
Both Clarke and Philogene have had spells at Premier League clubs in the past. The former, a one-time Leeds United starlet who struggled for opportunities at Tottenham Hotspur, has blossomed since returning to the EFL, scoring 15 goals from out wide while raising his market value to around £20 million.
HITC understands there has also been interest, in recent months, from Sheffield United, Burnley and Lazio in Clarke. With Sheffield United and Burnley seemingly heading back to the Championship, however, both clubs would struggle to stump up the sort of fee Sunderland want.
Philogene, meanwhile, is a graduate of the Aston Villa academy. The England under-21 international has been a revelation since joining Hull on a permanent basis, that rabona finish against Rotherham the highlight of a superb campaign.
Aston Villa have first refusal for Jaden Philogene
Palace are keen, although Oliver Glasner’s side will be hoping that Aston Villa opt against bringing Philogene back to the Midlands, however, with Hull confirming that the Champions League-chasers have a £15 million buy-back clause in Philogene’s contract.
“Ridiculous. (His talent) is ridiculous,” Hull boss Liam Rosenior tells the Yorkshire Live of the ‘outrageous’ Philogene, who has eight goals and six assists himself in 2023/24. “He is only going to get better the more games he plays.”
“It is not just his goal or the showreel moments. It is his energy levels for the team. He has a real belief, he can be a top player. But the reason he can be a top player is because he works so hard on his game.
“We have to get him off the training pitch because he wants to do extra.”
HITC Football have also been told that Glasner is keen on bringing two of the brightest young talents in Austrian football to South London; Rapid Vienna duo Mathias Seidl and Leopold Querfeld. Palace are eyeing Juventus’ ex-Chelsea winger Samuel Iling-Junior too.
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