Chelsea are poised to sign Michael Olise and Roméo Lavia after activating a £35m (€40 million) release clause in the Crystal Palace forward’s contract and agreeing a fee of £53m plus £5m (€68 million) in add-ons with Southampton for the Belgium midfielder. Both Olise (21) and Lavia (19) want to move to Stamford Bridge.
Olise is expected to be out of action with a hamstring injury until at least the end of September, and the move will depend on the France Under-21 player passing a medical. He would provide Mauricio Pochettino with more options in attacking midfield. If everything goes to plan Olise will compete with Raheem Sterling, Mykhailo Mudryk and Noni Madueke for a place on the wings.
Manchester City have also considered a move for Olise, who was released by Chelsea when he was a youngster. Chelsea have pushed hardest and are confident of completing a deal. They have also considered Ajax’s Mohammed Kudus, Lyon’s Rayan Cherki and Celta Vigo’s Gabri Veiga, who is likely to join Napoli.
The club agreed a fee with Southampton for Lavia last night which falls just short of that offered by Liverpool for the player, who preferred a move to west London. The deals make it a hat-trick for Chelsea this week after they bought Moisés Caicedo from Brighton for £115 million (€135 million) on Monday, breaking the British transfer record for the second time this year in the process.
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Pochettino is also looking for a goalkeeper after loaning Kepa Arrizabalaga to Real Madrid. He has joined for a season after Thibaut Courtois sustained a cruciate knee ligament injury but at his presentation on Tuesday he said he would like to extend his spell, even with the Belgian expected to be fit by then.
Arrizabalaga was first on the brink of joining Madrid from Athletic Bilbao in 2018, only for the coach Zinedine Zidane to express doubts about the deal, leaving him to join Chelsea instead. Having now made the move, he was asked whether he would like to continue beyond the end of his loan, to which he replied “ojalá”, which translates roughly as: God-willing.
“Today is the first day,” he said. “I come on loan but we will have time, we will see and hopefully with my effort and my performance level that can happen.”
Arrizabalaga, who had an offer from Bayern Munich, played 163 games across five up-and-down seasons in London, where he regained his place in the team last season having made only 11 league appearances in the two previous campaigns. Although Éduard Mendy was allowed to move to Saudi Arabia this summer, the £25 million (€30 million) signing of Robert Sánchez opened the prospect of Arrizabalaga being left out again and he was given permission to move. – Guardian
