1st Premier League goal vs Fulham 

©TM/IMAGO

Mykhaylo Mudryk for €70 million. Christopher Nkunku for €60m. Pedro Neto for €60m. João Félix for €52m. Cole Palmer for €47m. Omari Kellyman for €22.5m. Jadon Sancho loan with obligation to buy for €30m. These are all either wingers or attacking midfielders signed by Chelsea in the last two and half seasons. Essentially all competing for three places behind the striker. That’s €341.5m of talent. So it may come as a great surprise that when Chelsea needed a goal to get them back in the game against west London rivals Fulham on Sunday, it was none of those players that stepped up. Instead an instinctive finish from 19 year old academy product Tyrique George drew the Blues level at Craven Cottage.

Of the aforementioned signings, Neto actually went on to score the stoppage-time winner against Fulham and it was a belter, but the only player from that list who can qualify as an undisputed success is Palmer. It speaks a lot for his talent, and the trust shown in him by manager Enzo Maresca, that George is getting any game-time at all, given the vast amount of talented stars that play in his position. In the Europa Conference League, George has been a regular this season, but after his important strike against Fulham, he may now be ready to play a crucial role in Chelsea’s Premier League run-in. With the Blues hunting down a top-five finish to get back into the Champions League.

How good is Chelsea teenager Tyrique George?

As can be identified by scrolling through the gallery above, Chelsea are one of the hardest clubs in the world right now to progress through from the academy to the first-team, due to the sheer number of players on the west London club’s books. They have so many players on long contracts and are trying to hoover up the best young talent from all four corners of the world. There have been 36 permanent signings in three seasons since Todd Boehly arrived at the club. Given all this, it speaks volumes that George has been able to make an impact on the first-team this campaign. After his impressive cameo against Fulham, manager Maresca was full of praise, “He is a talent, he is doing well with us. He deserved a chance and the goal was fantastic, it gave us an energy boost for the last push.”

George only came on the pitch in the 78th minutes vs Fulham, and has only played 96 Premier League minutes all season, but, as illustrated in the graphic above, he has had plenty of opportunities in the Europa Conference League. Only five players have played more minutes in Europe for Chelsea this season than George’s 588. He has featured in every Europa Conference League game, scoring one goal in the process, as well as showing exciting flair on the ball. Chelsea will face Swedish side Djurgårdens in the semi-finals of that competition, and George will likely be involved once more. The youngster has come right through the ranks at Cobham, and joined the club as an eight year old all the way back in 2014. His style of play has even drawn comparisons with Arsenal superstar Bukayo Saka.

For years, Chelsea’s youth academy has been a conveyor belt of talent. Chelsea U18 won the FA Youth cup for five years in-a-row between 2013 and 2018. However, due to the club’s aggressive transfer policy in which they sign a high number of stars for big money, opportunities in the first-team have often been limited. This has led the Blues to sell on many top academy stars for a profit. It’s easy to see a world in which Chelsea don’t give George the game-time he needs or even deserves and he is sold on for ‘pure profit’. However, right now, the other players in attacking positions simply aren’t performing, and it would be no surprise to see George start their next match at home to Everton this Saturday.