Ex-coach reveals Olise trained with Arsenal before joining Chelsea as a schoolboy

Sean Conlon, who worked with 2021 Super Eagles invitee Michael Olise in his formative years as a footballer, has revealed that the Crystal Palace winger trained with Arsenal before joining Chelsea as a schoolboy.

At that age, young footballers are allowed to sound out the local academies before making a decision on the team to join at U9 level.

By the time Olise was fifteen he had played for three of the top academies in England - Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City - before joining Reading.

Conlon, CEO at We Make Footballers, revealed that he offered support to Olise by giving him games after leaving Chelsea, where he spent seven years, by mutual consent.

Subject to passing a fitness test, Olise could be facing his former employers this evening when Crystal Palace battle Chelsea in the semifinals of the Emirates FA Cup.

Speaking to the BBC, Conlon said : "It wasn't that he was particularly big or strong; it was the efficiency of his movements. He was very elegant, a graceful runner. He glided across the pitch. There was ease about the way he did things.

"At the time he was just in at Arsenal. Then in the under-8s season he joined various development centres as well as us and he became more polished."

The former Queens Park Rangers scout added : "He was so slight as a youngster, he needed game intelligence.

"Add that to the character from his journey - it makes him the full package.

"He can go to the very, very top. Everybody at Chelsea is so pleased with his success."

Olise has been one of the young revelations in this season's Premier League, so much so that he is being monitored by his former employers Chelsea and Arsenal ahead of the summer transfer window.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel