I suspect the release clauses are more to do with his agent than him. To have a release clause at such a young age at Reading was very sensible business.

In terms of saying no to a move, there is no need to put this in a contract, every player has the right to refuse to move when under contract. The fact that we doubled his money at the same time must have helped!
Incidentally how do you think the release clause was so widely known? Could that be due to his agent??

As your link won't open, is this the one, you saw? . . . [Link]

I'm a blind man, i'm a blind man, now my room is cold,
When a blind man cries, Lord, he feels it from his soul.
[Link]

Yes thats the one . Dont steal my thunder , Are you Norwoodhill in disguise.

There is another article, I think the metro that says his new release clause isn’t much higher than the original 35m. I hope that is not true as the sale of olise could enable a significant much needed rebuild. I agree with a lot of posters here. 80-100m is realistic. He has an amazing future ahead of him

Would that not set the starting price if there is (we hope) a bidding war?

I'm not sure it works like that. Once the release clause is met the player is allowed to negotiate terms with the club but if multiple offers come in that trigger the release clause he is under no obligation to go to the one with the biggest offer

Let's say his release clause is 60 million and Liverpool offers that. Man City counters with 70 and Man Utd with 80. Obviously, Palace would prefer United to prevail but Olise might think "Why would I want to join that circus without European football" and turn down City as they wouldn't agree to make him a guaranteed starter. Salah may have left Liverpool by then and he is the obvious replacement. If he gets something approaching Salah's salary that could well be where he ends up