‘Steve Parish should be worried’ – Palace boss Hodgson expects big clubs to show interest in Michael Olise

BY ANDREW MCSTEEN

Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson addmited he would be worried if he was Steve Parish about potential suitors coming in for Michael Olise in the summer.

The young French U21 international recorded his ninth assist of the season for the Eagles in Saturday’s 4-3 win over West Ham.

Olise joined the South Londoners from Reading in 2021 and has made 67 appearances for the club in all competitions.

“If I was Steve Parish, I would be [worried], but I’m Roy Hodgson, and for the next few weeks, I wish them all well,” said the smiling Palace boss when asked if he was worried about any potential bids for the player.

“I don’t have any conversations regarding the contracts or what the club wants to do. If they ever need an opinion from me, I know they’ll ask it, but I certainly won’t be proffering it.

“We expect our defending players to work very, very hard and that, in my opinion, is the biggest step forward that Michael Olise’s made during the time I’ve been here – he’s understood better and better what his jobs are when the opponent’s got the ball, what areas he needs to seal off, when he needs to track back.

“We never gave the responsibility to Wilf and to Jordan to track their overlapping full-back, and we weren’t going to start when we came here.”

But it is up the other end of the pitch for Olise that most impressed Hodgson.

“That’s what he’s in the team for,” said Hodgson about his assists on Saturday. “But I think he needs to get more goals. He’s got goals in him. He cut inside on his left foot on a few occasions and got some good strikes away. All the time he’s producing those like he’s doing, we’re more than happy with him.

“He’s another player where I see him getting better in our eyes, in terms of things we want him to do. I see that every week. I’m not suggesting because I see that in our eyes, it’s different to what he was before (I came) – maybe before he was doing even more and better things? I don’t know.

“What we would like to see for him is see him get better and better in those areas, and if he can keep producing those goal chances for us, we’re delighted. He’s had two assists today, and both are very, very good ones. The little pass into the diagonal run of Jordan (Ayew) was perfect and something we like to see. That run to the by-line and the clever ball across the box (for Zaha’s goals) all credit to him – he’s a good player.”

PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD