SiteData Community

The comedian, who replaced Anne Robinson as the host of The Weakest Link, has previously spoken about his impoverished upbringing, including the challenges faced by his family when their home was repossessed after his accountant father was jailed for two years for fraud.

Richards' wife always suggested he keep some mementos of his time coaching Olise. You know, just in case. One of the pictures he still has is a Hayes Youth team photo taken at the Manor Youth Summer Football Festival in 2008. 

 The influencer knew from a young age that she wanted to follow a more creative path: 'In school I was always in like the second set, like academically, I just accepted the fact that I wasn't going to be the next scientist or the next English teacher.

Strictly's Nadiya Bychkova reunites with Dan Walker as they... 'It's my greatest achievement': Steve Jones lauds his... Love Island's Molly Smith puts on an eye-popping display in... Gemma Collins 'is in secret talks to join the cast of...

 She believes it's not something to be ashamed of and never used it as an excuse in life: I hate to make the excuse that I'm dyslexic. I've always found coping mechanisms, and I've got got on with my life.

'All that stress on the body doesn't bode well': Katie Price... 'Moisturise and go day!' Molly-Mae Hague displays her... Chanelle Hayes reveals the results of her 9st weight loss as... 'It's extraordinary to witness how quickly people have got...

Shopper stunned by Woolworths' bizarre solution to running... What does tomorrow's full moon mean for YOUR star sign?... Nostalgic Aussies lose it over pictures of the very first Mr... Foodie stumbles upon a 'secret, one-hatted Asian smokehouse'...

It was while playing for Hayes that Olise caught the eye of Sean Conlon. Conlon had not long left Chelsea as a coach and was working as a scout for QPR while setting up his own company called We Make Footballers, who specialise in developing young players from the ages of four to 12.
He'd received a tip-off about a young lad named Michael Olise.

Mr Ranganathan made clear his allegiance to the West Sussex town - whose other notable residents include England manager Gareth Southgate and Crown actress Erin Doherty - by calling his 2018 autobiography Straight Outta Crawley: Memoirs Of A Distinctly Average Human Being.

'He has managed to find a space there to build his dream home, though it is rather bigger than his childhood home in one of the poorer areas of Crawley. It's a lovely story of rags to riches which Romesh has worked very hard for.'

The comic, whose mother appeared regularly in his BBC travel series Asian Provocateur, was previously a maths teacher and head of sixth form at Hazelwick school in Crawley, where he had also been a pupil.

Olise, now lighting up the wing at Crystal Palace, joined Hayes Youth at the age of six after his parents, Vincent and Mina, responded to an advert in the local paper, the Hayes Gazette, looking for young players to form a new team.

When a Millwall fan hit him with a bottle thrown from the crowd as he prepared to take a corner during Palace's FA Cup third-round win — in which Olise scored and then set up the winner — he responded by turning, smiling and beckoning towards them as if to ask: ‘is that all you've got?'

Michael Olise's parents had taken a wrong turn. By the time they arrived at their son's game, with Michael in the back of the car, it was half-time and Hayes Youth were 2-0 down. When it was finished, Hayes had won and Michael had scored a hat-trick.

He wanted to do what he enjoyed. If we had a meeting, Michael would be the last one in the room. Those are the little traits that I imagine Patrick Vieira and senior players at Premier League level would not put up with that so much.'

He'd say "what am I learning today? What am I getting out of this?" Michael would have this thing in training when if any session was just going through passing drills or things that really engage him he would want to know why. 

‘Someone asked me a while ago "how far can Michael go?" He can go how far he wants.
It's just whether he has the mental strength — and Palace fans won't thank me for saying this — to say to himself "I want to play Champions League football, play for an even bigger club'. Because I think he can do it. Is he prepared to push himself on again? I think he is.'

‘I think he's found the balance now, of carrying that ability and that confidence while also understanding that you still have to work hard and be dedicated to your training and your profession. He's got that balance perfect now, and that's why we're seeing the player that we are witnessing now every week for Crystal Palace.'

Olise's coach at Hayes Under 7s, Michael Richards, has a few of these stories.
Like the one when he was stood next to a Tottenham scout the day Olise cushioned an opposition goalkeeper's kick to the halfway line with his right thigh, volleyed it with his left foot, and sent it soaring back over the keeper's head into the net.