How Crystal Palace fought off Boehly to keep star winger Olise at the club

Crystal Palace fans were delighted by the news that Michael Olise on Friday signed a new and improved four-year deal to keep him at the club.

It had appeared Chelsea were set to seal the talented young winger's signature, but Olise shocked many by putting pen to paper with the south London side.

For Palace, co-owner Steve Parish and manager Roy Hodgson, the news came as a massive boost after losing talismanic forward Wilfried Zaha to Galatasaray on a free earlier this summer.

And the complex terms of the release clause in his contract Chelsea believed they had triggered - but, in fact, had not - have now been revealed.

As reported by The Athletic, Olise's old contract was the subject of much scrutiny. After Palace paid the straightforward £8million release clause to sign him from Reading in summer 2021, there was a release clause written into his first deal.

It was believed to have been removed by Palace, but that was not the case, despite their attempts to get rid of, or at least renegotiate, the clause in contract negotiations in 2022. Instead, it was a complicated and highly specific release clause with instructions that had to be followed fastidiously.

The Athletic report that Olise's old deal required the player himself to inform Palace of the interest in him and his personal desire to activate the release clause.

At that point, Palace would tell Olise how much money they wanted, information he would pass on to the potential buyers. Here, it was a figure significantly in excess of £35m, but that guaranteed Palace a net fee of at least £35m. Then the buyers, in this case Chelsea, could inform Palace of their desire to pay the required fee.

But when the west London outfit attempted to trigger the release clause on Sunday