Premier League

Ten 30+ Goal Strikers Like Viktor Gyokeres Who Flopped in Premier League

Viktor Gyokeres scored 43 goals for Sporting last season and is well on his way to another massive haul this term after 23 in his first 17 games.

That includes a hat-trick against arguably the best team in Europe in his penultimate game under a manager he could join at Manchester United come the end of the season.

Whether the leading goalscorer in 2024 follows Ruben Amorim to Old Trafford or not, he looks destined for bigger and better things, which often means the Premier League. But fair warning to Gyokeres and his suitors: scoring a bucketload of goals in the season before moving to the English top flight is far from a guarantee of success once you get there.

These ten players all scored 30+ goals in the campaign before moving to the Premier League and flopped.

Timo Werner (RB Leipzig to Chelsea)
One of five players signed under Frank Lampard in the summer of 2020 that led an overly optimistic Chelsea-supporting journalist to claim the Blues legend had a ‘foolproof squad’ to work with and must mount a Premier League challenge.

Thiago Silva was an excellent buy and Ben Chilwell has had his moments but none of Hakim Ziyech, Kai Havertz or Timo Werner proved to be anywhere near as successful as we thought they would be at Stamford Bridge, with Werner in particular a source of huge frustration.

He’s not really got going again since, with Tottenham fans now ruing him being the man on the end of chance, preparing themselves for inevitable fluffed shots in good positions or terrible decision-making from a striker for whom finding the back of the net was second nature before he arrived in the Premier League.

Romelu Lukaku (Inter Milan to Chelsea)
On the back of Champions League glory under a manager who knew what he was doing, Lukaku was deemed the final piece of Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea puzzle.

Four seasons after Diego Costa’s departure, having messed around with Alvaro Morata, Gonzalo Higuain, Tammy Abraham, Havertz and Werner, Chelsea signed A Proper Centre-Forward; a bully, essentially.

Lukaka scored in his first game on his return to Chelsea against Arsenal when we all thought the Blues were onto something, but scored just three more before his bombshell Sky Italia interview in December which took aim at Tuchel’s tactics, and that was that.

Eduardo (Dinamo Zagreb to Arsenal)
Not so much Eduardo that flopped but his left foot. Sometimes we can still see it hanging limply from the rest of his leg, joined by mere sinew, when we close our eyes at night.

He suffered arguably the worst injury in Premier League history when Birmingham’s Martin Taylor broke both his tibia and fibula and who knows how his career may have progressed without that harrowing moment.

Darwin Nunez (Benfica to Liverpool)
Depends on your definition of a flop etc etc. but after a goal off the bench in his first appearance for Liverpool in the Community Shield win over Manchester City, after which more than a few Liverpool fans suggested they may have signed their own Erling Haaland, perhaps even a more rounded version, we can safely say that Nunez has not lived up to expectations at Anfield.

Djibril Cisse (Auxerre to Liverpool)
Cisse faced an uphill battle from the moment he walked through the door on Merseyside with the manager who had been so desperate to sign him, Gerard Houllier, already dismissed in favour of Rafa Benitez, whom it’s fair to say wasn’t quite so keen on the Frenchman.

“I keep a fantastic memory of England, even if I still hold a grudge on the coach,” Cisse told L’Equipe Magazine. “I have still not swallowed it. Maybe I will never swallow it. I am still very upset. I scored 19 goals and I never played! The coach and myself were not compatible.”

Roberto Soldado (Valencia to Tottenham)
“He’s a £26million footballer, our record signing, don’t you think it will affect him? I don’t care – Harry’s starting.” A story Tim Sherwood will tell anyone who brushes past him in the street as he takes credit for Harry Kane, who would not be England’s greatest ever goalscorer had his genius manager not put him in the team over six-goal Soldado in April 2014.

Nine One-Season Wonder seasons at Tottenham followed for Kane as Soldado presumably regrets moving to a club that was in the process of brewing a goal machine.

Vincent Janssen (AZ Alkmaar to Tottenham)
We would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in what we’re assuming were talks between Daniel Levy and Janssen beset with confusion, with neither party anywhere close to being convinced a switch to Spurs was a good move.

Kane had just scored 25 Premier League goals having managed 21 the season before, and yet with uncertainty over goalscoring longevity all but removed Spurs decided to spend £20m on a striker for the bench and Janssen either had far too much faith in his own ability or was perfectly happy to watch from the sidelines. He started seven Premier League games.

Alvaro Negredo (Sevilla to Manchester City)
Signed in the same summer as Stevan Jovetic in that period before Pep Guardiola when Manchester City were throwing money willy nilly at problems that they didn’t really have, with Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko doing perfectly well without supposed added firepower that failed to make a mark at the Etihad.

Mateja Kezman (PSV Eindhoven to Chelsea)
Batman to [Arjen] Robben and they arrived at Chelsea together from PSV Eindhoven, with many more excited by Kezman’s arrival than his sidekick on the back of not one but two 30+ goal seasons for the Dutch side.

Their careers took rather different trajectories with Robben earning a move to Real Madrid through his Chelsea performances and then to Bayern Munich, where he won 14 major trophies. Kezman meanwhile scored fewer goals across the nine seasons after leaving PSV than in the two standout campaigns that got him the move to Chelsea.

Memphis Depay (PSV to Manchester United)
OK, so he only got 28 goals for PSV, but we’ll be damned if we’re making a list of nine. He’s been linked with a return on more than one occasion having recorded excellent numbers for Lyon and then also impressing at Barcelona, but two goals and no assists in 1,427 Premier League minutes for Manchester United really is a rotten record.

Football365.com

Premier League

Liverpool Tracking Prolific Teenage Sunderland Striker

Liverpool intend to ‘raid’ Championship high-flyers Sunderland for the signature of 18-year-old academy talent Trey Ogunsuyi, according to reports.

Clubs increasingly want players from a young age and develop them in-house, rather than go into the top of the transfer market for established stars.

As well as identifying local talent that includes poaching academy players from other clubs. To that end, the pearl of Liverpool’s academy is Trey Nyoni, a player brought in from Leicester City at the age of 16. But they certainly aren’t alone in that tactic, with Manchester United notably snapping up prolific prospect Chido Obi-Martin from Arsenal earlier this year.

The Daily Mail writes that the Reds are now monitoring versatile forward Ogunsuyi, who has scored five goals in five appearances at Premier League 2 so far this season, playing with and against players up to several years older.

And while the Belgium junior international is yet to make a senior debut for Sunderland, the youngster has been named on the bench by Regis Le Bris three times.

Sunderland is a club where young players are currently thriving. The Black Cats are aiming to return to the Premier League for the first time since 2017 and are doing it with a raw but talented squad – four of their five most used players so far this season are aged 23 or younger. Of those, two are 19-year-old Jobe Bellingham and 17-year-old Chris Rigg.

Liverpool’s own crop of youngsters also have plenty of promise. Jurgen Klopp famously relied on them during last season’s triumphant Carabao Cup run, although the aforementioned Nyoni is the only teenage to have accrued any first-team minutes so far under Arne Slot.

Premier League

Chelsea’s Curious Transfer Strategy Revealed With The Blues Demanding MORE Goals And Assists From Cole Palmer

Chelsea are scoring for fun, but they want to add even more firepower to their attack, according to reports

Chelsea quite literally cannot stop scoring — no team has netted more than Enzo Maresca’s men this term — but that isn’t stopping them from wanting more.

Holding the keys to scoring success at Stamford Bridge is one Cole Palmer — ranked the third-best attacking midfielder in the world currently by FourFourTwo — he has the most Premier League goals (11) AND the most assists (6) of anybody in his team.

Nevertheless, the Blues seem to want to try and get more out of him, and it seems they are closing in on a strategy to achieve just that.

Chelsea eye Liam Delap to add firepower to Cole Palmer-led attack

According to a report from TEAMtalk, Ipswich Town striker Liam Delap is high on Chelsea’s list, noting a lack of natural no.9 options, with just Nicolas Jackson fitting the bill.

The same reports have noted that his determination, strength and skill are attributes that have made the west London club consider the 21-year-old as a transfer target.

It suggests that Chelsea want even more from their attack, viewing Delap as a physical presence up front and someone that Palmer, already the creative king at Chelsea, can bounce off to increase his goal involvement even further.

Delap only arrived at Portman Road this summer, in a £20 million deal from Manchester City, but TEAMtalk reports that the Tractor Boys are hopeful of holding their man until at least the end of the season.

It’s easy to see why Chelsea view Delap as the perfect Palmer partner: the Ipswich forward has already six goals for the top-flight strugglers despite feeding off scraps — imagine what he might achieve with the service of his former fellow City academy product.

Crucially, Pep Guardiola’s side does hold a buyback clause on Delap, and it’s reported they haven’t ruled out activating it in the summer, but are unlikely to in January.

In FourFourTwo’s opinion, the theory works great on paper, but Delap may want to be wary about moving too soon.

He’s only six goals and a handful of appearances into his Premier League career — it’s an incredible start, but he’s got plenty of time ahead of him for a big move.

He will be the main man at Ipswich, having been loaned out and far down the pecking order at City, something which will only enhance his reputation. A turn of bad form at Chelsea, however, and we know just how many top talents they have waiting to step into the breach.

Premier League

Raheem Sterling’s Stance On Ending Arsenal Loan Early Revealed

Raheem Sterling has no intention of prematurely concluding his season-long loan spell at Arsenal, according to a report.

The former Liverpool and Manchester City forward was frozen out at Stamford Bridge by Enzo Maresca at the start of the season. Surprisingly left out of Chelsea’s squad for the first Premier League fixture of the campaign, Sterling sealed a west London exit on deadline day.

There was plenty of optimism about the deal at the time. Arsenal are reportedly paying less than half of Sterling’s £325,000 weekly wage – with Chelsea covering the remainder – and Mikel Arteta was excited to be reunited with a player he worked alongside at Manchester City.

However, Premier League starts have been hard to come by for Sterling and appearances of any length have stopped in recent weeks. The four-time top-flight champion has watched on as an unused substitute in Arsenal’s previous four matches across all competitions.

Sterling’s last league start for the Gunners was cut short in the 37th minute when Arteta was forced into a tactical reshuffle following William Saliba’s red card against Bournemouth in October. It was telling that the experienced winger was the player to be sacrificed.

Despite his minimal involvement, Sterling remains committed to Arsenal, according to the Evening Standard. The forward reportedly remains “determined” to win his place in the starting XI and is still considered a viable option for Arteta.

When Pep Guardiola’s former number two was asked if Sterling had been left on the sidelines for a specific reason this week, Arteta bluntly replied: “No.”

Arsenal’s boss has previously explained that Sterling’s lack of minutes has weighed heavily on him. “I would like him to play much more as I think he can impact the team in a very good way,” Arteta outlined earlier this month. “He’s very good in the dressing room and is absolutely desperate to play.”

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