Chelsea made a huge error in judgement by allowing Declan Rice to join West Ham United at an early age before missing out on re-signing the midfielder, but lessons may have been learned.
Did Declan Rice play for Chelsea?
Rice had spent half his life as part of Chelsea's academy set-up by the time he was released by the club aged 14 after being deemed not good enough.
The England international was soon snapped up by London rivals West Ham and made his senior debut on the final day of the 2016/17 campaign – the first of 245 appearances he would make for the Irons, culminating in May's Europa Conference League triumph.
Chelsea were reportedly eager to sign Rice earlier this summer, eight years on from his exit, only for Arsenal to win the race with a £100m-plus offer.
Given the high turnover of players at an academy level for Chelsea, risking similar situations in the future is a strong possibility, as is the case with Michael Olise at Crystal Palace.
Like Rice, Olise spent seven years with the Blues until moving on aged 14.
Now an established Premier League regular in his own right at the Eagles, the Daily Mail reports Chelsea are hoping to bring the attacking midfielder back to Stamford Bridge before the transfer window closes.
How old is Michael Olise?
The report claims that Chelsea are so eager to land Olise that they are willing to offer Palace £39m, despite the fact that he has a release clause of £35m.
That is because English and European champions Manchester City are also said to be interested, and Chelsea do not want to be burned twice in the space of a month or so by missing out on another of their former academy players.
Olise is a lot earlier in his development than Rice – he has made 63 top-flight appearances to the former West Ham ace's 204 – but he has more than shown what he is capable of while still being aged just 21.
The Analyst ranks Olise among the top 7% of all midfielders across Europe's top five leagues for chances created last season, the top 11% for dribbles attempted and top 19% for touches in the opposition box.
The France U21 international scored twice last season in the Premier League and set up a further 11 goals – only Mohamed Salah (12) and Kevin De Bruyne (16) assisted more, so he's in mighty fine company.
In terms of his statistical profile, FBref's comparison tool likens Olise to new Liverpool signing Dominik Szoboszlai, who was directly involved in 14 Bundesliga goals for RB Leipzig last season, compared to Olise's 13 in the Premier League.
Olise scored from 0.14 of his shots on target, compared to 0.18 for Szoboszlai, while they won a very similar number of aerial duels (30.9% and 28% respectively) and were successful from a similar number of take-ons (1.77 per 90 v 1.95).
As former Palace boss Patrick Vieira said last year, Olise "can score goals, create chances and is a special talent", so it is little wonder Chelsea are reputedly prepared to go above and beyond what is required to sign their former player, as they look to learn lessons from the Rice saga.
It's a move that could see the Blues hierarchy made amends from past mistakes, given the evidence above.