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PL Opposition tidbits

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Annoyingly Moyes is a decent manager at that level. He has an identity, can motivate the players and knows how to use a squad
 
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View: https://x.com/Blue_Footy/status/2013187364424675661


View: https://x.com/Matt_Law_DT/status/2013276058955534338

Chelsea’s Cobham academy has produced almost £1bn-worth of young players who are now owned by a Premier League rival or in a top European league.

Marc Guéhi became the latest former Chelsea youngster to seal a big-money move to one of their rivals by joining Manchester City for £20m from Crystal Palace.

The 25-year-old’s accumulated fees since leaving Chelsea have now hit £40m, but that is small change in comparison to the accumulated fees of all of the club’s academy products now owned by Premier League sides or a club in a top European League.

According to figures taken from Transfermarkt, the total accumulated fees for Chelsea academy players now owned by a different Premier League side or a club operating in a top European league is a staggering £931.5m.

That figure could be pushed even closer to £1bn this month with Tammy Abraham expected to return to the Premier League, potentially with Aston Villa, and Tyrique George hoping to secure a move away from Chelsea.

The success of Chelsea’s academy products is further testament to the work done by Neil Bath, who was head of youth development at the club for 18 years during a 31-year career at the club.

Bath left Chelsea in the summer of 2024 and has since set up a management and leadership consultancy company.

One leading agent, whose clients include a number of Chelsea academy products, said: “Neil Bath deserves a statue. Not just for what he did for Chelsea, but also the number of careers he is responsible for.”

Should Abraham return to the Premier League, then there will be 18 former Chelsea academy players owned by their top-flight rivals. There are a further six owned by clubs in Serie A, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1.

Conor Gallagher took his accumulated transfer value to £71m by joining Tottenham Hotspur, where Dominic Solanke, who has moved for fees totalling £74m, also plays.

The £931.5m in accumulated fees for Chelsea academy products does not include Tyler Dibling, who joined Everton for £35m from Southampton. He only spent a few months at Chelsea’s academy before returning to Southampton.


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View: https://x.com/Billie_T/status/2013049258371403951
 
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Interesting... Paco Jemez's appointment as First Team Coach was announced on 15 Jan 2026. Since then:

24/01/26: West Ham 3-1 Sunderland
17/01/26: Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 West Ham


View: https://x.com/CostiaWHU/status/2015219309220434366

Paco Jémez. Thankfully he’s getting a fair bit of applause because sometimes the backroom coaching staff get overlooked. He’s apparently the polar opposite to Nuno in that he’s an attacking coach, likes to be bold in his approach and take risks. That might just be what our head coach needs. It’s not particularly a good look in general to see the coaching staff argue with each other but maybe in this case it was needed, justified or even healthy. Nuno didn’t look too happy at the final whistle though 👀 or perhaps that was just me 🤷🏻‍♂️

I’m not saying the last two wins are purely down to his influence but there just seems to have been something different about us since the QPR game. Sir Alex Ferguson said himself he wanted an assistant that wouldn’t be afraid to push back against his ideas. A ying to his yang. No yes men. Perhaps that’s what Nuno wanted and as today’s footage from the Kilman substitution showed, he’s certainly got it.


View: https://x.com/westhamnetwork/status/2015174879864058161
 
Palace are about to pay £50m for Jorgen Strand Larsen. 1 goal in 21 PL appearances this season. That would be fine if he were a central defender but he is allegedly a striker.
He plays for Norway. Surely they haven't scouted Norway's games and thought "That big lad with the ponytail looks decent, what's his name? Jorgen Strand Larsen. Yeah, let's spunk £50m on him". Echoes of Per Kroldrup.
Absolute madness.
 
Beamrider said:
Palace are about to pay £50m for Jorgen Strand Larsen. 1 goal in 21 PL appearances this season. That would be fine if he were a central defender but he is allegedly a striker.
He plays for Norway. Surely they haven't scouted Norway's games and thought "That big lad with the ponytail looks decent, what's his name? Jorgen Strand Larsen. Yeah, let's spunk £50m on him". Echoes of Per Kroldrup.
Absolute madness.
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He's a very good striker and target man though. Pacey, good in the air and great movement.
25 years old, 6'4 and scored 14 goals for Wolves in the Premier league last season.
Scored 13 goals in his last season in La Liga before moving to Wolves as well.

He was close to leaving last summer but they wouldnt sell him to Newcastle, and he has been mostly on the bench this season due to a fall out I reckon.
He fits Palace and will be a great replacement for Mateta. The fee is 10 mill £ to much imho, but thats probably because Palace are getting close to that fee for Mateta and Wolves have played a blinder in selling him late.

He'll be a good signing for them, no doubt.
 
Hansern said:
He's a very good striker and target man though. Pacey, good in the air and great movement.
25 years old, 6'4 and scored 14 goals for Wolves in the Premier league last season.
Scored 13 goals in his last season in La Liga before moving to Wolves as well.

He was close to leaving last summer but they wouldnt sell him to Newcastle, and he has been mostly on the bench this season due to a fall out I reckon.
He fits Palace and will be a great replacement for Mateta. The fee is 10 mill £ to much imho, but thats probably because Palace are getting close to that fee for Mateta and Wolves have played a blinder in selling him late.

He'll be a good signing for them, no doubt.
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He started 14 of his 21 PL games. He averages a single shot per game. Have Wolves been shite because their main striker has been shite or is it the other way around?
At 25 he should be hitting his peak.
We can disagree over his individual merits, but the overarching point that this deal highlights is the premium teams are paying for goals in the current transfer market. If you look at last summer, we know what we paid for Isak and Ekitike (established and promising, respectively), Utd paid a fortune for Sesko who is raw at best, Gyokeres was always a gamble given the standard of the Portuguese league - was he as good as his numbers there suggested (reader, he was not). But that's 4 big transfers for players who were meant to bring goals. You could also add in Wissa (decent but over-priced). Ekitike, for whom expectations were probably the lowest, has done the best of them all by a distance. United have done better with Mbeumo and Cunha, but they're not going to post golden boot numbers any time soon.
Meanwhile Moyes, for example, is doing OK with that he has at Everton, until they get to the opposition penalty area. For years they've been missing a top front man, Calvert-Lewin was decent but always injured, and Beto and Barry, who were within their price range at £30m odd, are bang-average. Teams lower down the league either get lucky (Mateta, Wissa - both better than their clubs would expect to have) or they end up paying good money over and over for average forwards. You have to be loaded to get what you need, otherwise you end up splashing £30-40m over and over and never getting the real deal.
 
Gyokeres is not much better. But Strand Larsen while not being fantastic, has the attributes to do ok in this league.
Of course the prices are wild.
 
Beamrider said:
He started 14 of his 21 PL games. He averages a single shot per game. Have Wolves been shite because their main striker has been shite or is it the other way around?
At 25 he should be hitting his peak.
We can disagree over his individual merits, but the overarching point that this deal highlights is the premium teams are paying for goals in the current transfer market. If you look at last summer, we know what we paid for Isak and Ekitike (established and promising, respectively), Utd paid a fortune for Sesko who is raw at best, Gyokeres was always a gamble given the standard of the Portuguese league - was he as good as his numbers there suggested (reader, he was not). But that's 4 big transfers for players who were meant to bring goals. You could also add in Wissa (decent but over-priced). Ekitike, for whom expectations were probably the lowest, has done the best of them all by a distance. United have done better with Mbeumo and Cunha, but they're not going to post golden boot numbers any time soon.
Meanwhile Moyes, for example, is doing OK with that he has at Everton, until they get to the opposition penalty area. For years they've been missing a top front man, Calvert-Lewin was decent but always injured, and Beto and Barry, who were within their price range at £30m odd, are bang-average. Teams lower down the league either get lucky (Mateta, Wissa - both better than their clubs would expect to have) or they end up paying good money over and over for average forwards. You have to be loaded to get what you need, otherwise you end up splashing £30-40m over and over and never getting the real deal.
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I think its wrong to only use this season individually as some sort of example to set for his quality. He started and played for the worst team that the PL have seen, probably ever. 2 points in the first 19 games. The performances are a sum of all parts. Nearly all his starts were under the former manager. Fwiw he has scored 5 goals in other competitions as well this season.

Its clear that Palace are signing him for how he impacted Wolves and the team last season scoring 14 goals. His merits prior to that are very good as well. I've watched him play football since his younger days in Norway and for the international teams, so I KNOW he's a good player.

That the fee is high and that teams pay over the odds in a striker market short on quality is another discussion, and one I agree with.
But Strand Larsen isnt another Krolderup. The latter was signed cause they fucked up the scouting info and signed the wrong player.
Strand Larsen has PL pedigree from last season and will fit Palace.

He's more than a goalscorer as he has great movement and his link up play is very good.
 
tomasjj said:
Gyokeres is not much better. But Strand Larsen while not being fantastic, has the attributes to do ok in this league.
Of course the prices are wild.
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Strand Larsen is a good PL player and has the merits with 14 goals last season. But its his overall play that makes me think its a good fit for Palace.
Link up play, movement and work rate. He'll fit really well with Sarr, Wharton and Munoz.
 
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