Chelsea are set to ramp up their pursuit of Crystal Palace winger Michael Olise as they prepare a fresh offer for the highly-rated player.
Crystal Palace have been inundated with offers for the winger but have held firm on their price tag of £60 million.
As exclusively revealed by TEAMtalk, Manchester United are also huge admirers of Olise, but Chelsea are working hard to leapfrog their rivals in the tace.
With FFP concerns tying Chelsea’s hands they are set to offer Crystal Palace a player along with a cash fee.
That player is rumoured to be Raheem Sterling, who appears unsettled at the club and hasn’t played 90 minutes since Chelsea’s 4-1 loss to Liverpool in January.
Olise reportedly came close to joining Chelsea last season when his release clause was fixed at £35 million but opted to renew his deal with Crystal Palace.
That new deal is also believed to have included a new enhanced release clause.
Chelsea try to sweeten the deal
Chelsea are not keen on paying the full fee demanded for Olise and could offer Sterling as well as additional players to get the deal done.
Graeme Bailey has told TBR Football that Chelsea are set to offer Sterling as part of a package deal for Olise.
The Blues might also float the suggestion that Armando Broja or Trevoh Chalobah could be added to the deal.
Chelsea could wind up giving themselves another transfer headache if they cannot convince Sterling to leave.
The England winger is on £325,000 per week at Chelsea and there is no earthly way that he would command that kind of pay at Selhurst Park.
Sterling is seemingly well aware of his situation and is not making things easy for Chelsea.
His current deal with Chelsea runs out in 2027 and he is unlikely to leave without significant compensation.
Raheem Sterling could be a solid signing for Palace
It seems increasingly likely that Crystal Palace will lose Olise and the Chelsea deal offers them a like-for-like replacement.
While Chelsea aren’t willing to stump up the full fee, the addition of Sterling to the Palace squad would be some consolation.
Sterling started the current term in decent touch but has more recently fallen out of favour with Mauricio Pochettino.
There is little doubt that he would be a valuable player to Crystal Palace and a better replacement for Olise than they could source on the open market.
Crystal Palace are believed to be tracking Argentine winger Matias Soule, who has spent this season out on loan with Frosinone, where he has managed to net 11 goals and 3 assists in 33 Serie A outings.
Juventus have indicated that Soule could cost between £25 million and £30 million.
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