At the risk of repeating what's already been said, since I have come late to this quite lengthy thread, my recollection is that there was a £35m release clause in MO's contract when we signed him from Reading, which was fairly inevitably triggered after his first season with use. Who wouldn't give it a go for a player of his quality at that price? So at that point, his contract - equally predictably really - was renegotiated. Isn't that the real point of release clauses most of the time? His wages were surprisingly higher than Eze's last time I looked. I've assumed throughout the course of this squib that some wannabe journo spotted the original contract but then got too over-excited or he was on a promise or whatever so he made up the rest of the story instead of following his researches through.

I've had a bit of a rummage but Google just deluges me with the last 24 hour's rumours. Clickbait is very ephemeral! So I'm just going by memory. I'm sure there was a release clause and it seems to be being very credibly denied now.

He aint going nowhere right now.
Nor sadly will we see him on the pitch just yet.
My guess is £70m minimum next year.
Click bait are used big clubs to stir.

Thanks!

It has to be some sort of orchestrated piss take, who by is anyone’s guess. £26mill for a player with a supposed £35mill get out clause is an obvious joke anyway. He is every bit of £35 mill and more. Very little in these reports , other than Olise, is a talent top clubs will be aware of , holds any water. Oddly a lot of this is coming from the continent, what’s that all about.? Other than a reason for them being so badly informed.

And as always the answer to the Champions League/want to win trophies quote is - Go and play for Celtic then where you're guaranteed both but will get £100,000 a week less.