Inside Cole Palmer's £42.5m Chelsea transfer and the Joe Shields masterclass that made it happen
«I don’t like to use luck as a reason [for not scoring]. It's something you can't control. Clearly you need that in a game.»
It has been 14 months since a frustrated Graham Potter said that in a press conference. At the time, it seemed inevitable to virtually everyone that Potter did not have a long-term future at Chelsea.
The goalscoring problems that had also caused Thomas Tuchel issues during his successful time with the club would almost certainly carry over to whoever was appointed as Potter's successor. Mauricio Pochettino was that man and early indications suggested the Argentine would also be tasked with solving one of the biggest problems in football — getting a team to score goals consistently.
It was not as if Chelsea had not tried to sign players to improve their fortunes in the final third. Under Potter and Tuchel, the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mykhailo Mudryk, Raheem Sterling, Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and plenty more were brought in for big money. These are all players who had success in front of goal for former clubs.
That was never the case at Stamford Bridge, though, albeit Sterling and Mudryk are still playing in the present day. Getting to the root cause of the problem stumped Tuchel and Potter. And those working behind the scenes at Chelsea.
When Pochettino was appointed head coach, starting his role officially on July 1, 2023, there was a big expectation, more of an assumption, that Chelsea would bring in a proven No.9 in the summer transfer window. A striker did come in, in the form of Nicolas Jackson, a relatively unproven and inexperienced, but talented, centre-forward who enjoyed a fine finish to the previous season in Spain with Villarreal.
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