Chelsea could sign “one of Europe’s best forwards” for £58m

In Cole Palmer, Chelsea have one of Europe’s biggest talents. A talisman to drive the club toward an illustrious future and regular positions to challenge for silverware.

Manchester City must be seething. Pep Guardiola couldn’t guarantee the young playmaker the game time that he wanted after showing great potential on the fringes, and so Chelsea raised eyebrows when forking out £42.5m to bring him to Stamford Bridge in August 2023.

67 games later, the Three Lions superstar has scored 38 goals and supplied 21 assists in a Chelsea shirt, with Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher pronouncing the 22-year-old as “the best player in the Premier League” earlier in the season.

He’s been sensational this term (Palmer, not Carragher), but perhaps not the finest player that the Premier League has to offer. Not quite. Not yet. Mohamed Salah has been ridiculous in front of goal for Liverpool.

Chelsea have learned from the errors of their ways and plucked City’s superstar in the making, something that the four-in-a-row champions will regret for years, for Chelsea once let Salah go before he grew into his skin.

When Chelsea sold Mohamed Salah

Chelsea signed Salah over a decade ago, welcoming Basel’s talented winger for an £11m fee in 2014. Jose Mourinho’s interest had been piqued after a goalscoring performance against the Blues in the Champions League.

Now a Liverpool superstar, Salah hardly looked like he was going to become a Premier League player of note, with Mourinho even saying that the Egyptian needed to “raise his level.”

He only scored twice across 19 appearances for Chelsea, and after a couple of productive loan spells in Italy, was sold to Roma for about £12m, turning over a marginal profit for a peripheral player.

How Chelsea must regret how it turned out. At least, in Palmer, Chelsea have indeed rectified their former wrongs. And anyway, with Enzo Maresca looking to improve his exciting team, the Londoners have picked out Salah’s natural successor and could swoop this year.

Chelsea eyeing “the new Salah”

As per reports at the weekend from Caught Offside, Chelsea are in the race to sign Eintracht Frankfurt’s Omar Marmoush, who in the words of analyst David Segar has been “one of Europe’s best forwards” this season and is valued at €70m (£58m).

Liverpool have been monitoring the Egypt sensation’s progress since the start of the season with Salah into the final year of his contract, though Manchester City are now ramping up the gas as they prepare for a rebuild.

That said, Chelsea are firmly in the picture, albeit on the outside, and could look to make their move, especially when considering he’s been named “the new Salah” by journalist Andres Weiss.

Why Chelsea should sign Omar Marmoush

Marmoush has been on fire this season, posting 18 goals and 12 assists across 24 matches in all competitions. He’s already claimed two German Bundesliga Player of the Month awards as he supercharges Frankfurt’s push for Champions League football.

How curious that his countryman Salah is the only player across Europe’s top five leagues this season to have chalked more goal contributions than him, making a telling comment on just how clinical he’s been – especially given that he’s played 15 games, four fewer than Salah and five less than Palmer.

As per FBref, Marmoush also ranks among the top 1% of forwards across Europe’s top five leagues over the past year for shot-creating actions, the top 5% for progressive carries and the top 3% for successful take-ons per 90, emphasising both athleticism and underlying creative quality that also makes Salah so special.

A successful take-on is recorded when a player beats their opponent by directly carrying the ball past them while retaining possession.

Marmoush wears the trappings of an elite-level Premier League forward and could revolutionise Chelsea’s frontline, wreaking havoc with Palmer behind him as a kind of creative muse.

Of course, Chelsea have something of an overload of talented forwards within Maresca’s squad, and any move should not be to the detriment of Nicolas Jackson, 23, who has shown much promise this year.

However, given Marmoush’s fluidity and multi-faceted attacking qualities, he might just be the perfect upgrade on Christopher Nkunku, who has struggled to find a place in Chelsea’s Premier League squad this term.

Nkunku has been unfortunate with injuries since joining Chelsea at the start of last season, and while he’s scored 12 goals from 27 matches this term, only two have come in the Premier League.

Struggling to identify a role within the squad, Nkunku has played across four positions for Chelsea, most productive in a number ten-type role that is typically occupied by Palmer.

Given that the France international lacks the physicality to survive as a Premier League striker, averaging only 1.2 successful duels per game, as per Sofascore, with a success rate of 40%, Chelsea would be wise to act quickly, leaping over suitors such as Liverpool and City to get their mitts on one of Europe’s prized possessions and continue to promote the exciting Maresca project.