Similar to 2022–2023 and the Mauricio Pochettino appointment, Chelsea’s 2023–2024 season has been a complete disaster. The Blues are currently ninth in the Premier League and face a real possibility of missing out on European football for a second consecutive season despite the infusion of talented young players in the summer.
Though the Pensioners have closed the gap on the top four with three straight league victories, they may still be able to challenge for the Champions League spots if they make the appropriate additions this month.
That is to be the club’s thinking, anyhow, since the Blues have recently made a bid for the next player said to be heading to Stamford Bridge. The player has been scoring goals for fun on the continent and has the potential to greatly increase Cole Palmer’s inventiveness.
Chelsea puts up a bid for one of the best strikers on the continent.
Sport Witness sources from Portugal state that Chelsea has made a proposal believed to be in the neighborhood of €85 million, or roughly £73 million, for Sporting CP’s free-scoring number nine, Viktor Gyokeres.
Chelsea supporters shouldn’t get too enthusiastic just yet, though, as the report also states that the Portuguese team has turned down the offer and reiterated their position that he won’t be sold this month unless a team fulfils his enormous €100 million (£86 million) release clause.
However, considering how near the Blues’ bid was to the release clause, it is anticipated that they may make another offer in the next few days.
Palmer’s creative numbers might be further enhanced by his precision finishing, therefore even though this deal will be extremely expensive for the club to finalize, it would be worthwhile to acquire a player of his caliber.
Cole Palmer might be supercharged by Viktor Gyokeres.
The incapacity of Chelsea’s strikers to convert opportunities in front of goal has been one of the team’s main issues this season. The Blues are fourth in expected goals but eighth in goals scored, meaning they have scored nine fewer goals than they should have by now, according to Understat’s expected goals model.
While a number of the team’s players are to blame for this issue, Nicolas Jackson stands out as one who has consistently fluffed his lines.
The Senegalese forward has scored seven goals in the league so far this season, which is quite impressive considering that three of those goals came against a Tottenham Hotspur team that had nine players on the pitch. However, based on his expected goals figure, he should have scored at least four more goals, which is an astonishingly low total for a starting striker for a top six team.
Gyokeres, in contrast, has 11 league goals from an expected goals figure of 7.9. This indicates that he is overperforming by more than three goals, which is indicative of a clinical finisher—and he has scored some incredible goals in his career—even though it is probably not sustainable in the Premier League.
Palmer could expect his already strong creative numbers to soar with Chelsea’s finest summer signing, the Swedish “powerhouse” up front, as analytics expert Ben Mattinson put him.
With his present teammates, the former Manchester City prodigy is losing out on at least one more assist to his record. Currently, he has four league assists from an expected assists figure of 5.4.
But, considering the rate at which the former Coventry City player overperforms, if Gyokeres were to come in ahead of him, he would not only probably receive that extra assist, but possibly even a couple more.
In the end, Chelsea should make a second offer for the “unplayable” Swede, as former teammate Maxime Biamou referred to him, even though it will cost the club a significant amount of money to get over the finish line. Jackson is simply too careless with the ball in front of goal.
