Chelsea are poised to sign Michael Olise and Roméo Lavia after activating a £35m release clause in the Crystal Palace forward’s contract and agreeing a fee of £53m plus £5m 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.
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 £115m on Monday, breaking the British transfer record for the second time this year in the process.
“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 £25m signing of Robert Sánchez opened the prospect of Arrizabalaga being left out again and he was given permission to move.
