Outscoring Palmer: Chelsea sold star a “bit like Eden Hazard” for just £18m

Fair to say, in recent seasons, a large number of players have come through Chelsea.

In fact, since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital completed their takeover of the club in 2022, the Blues have signed 49 senior players, costing around £1.5bn, while 64 have been sold, recouping approximately £789m; many fit into both categories!

Almost inarguably, the best signing made during this period is the £40m paid to bring Cole Palmer to the club from Manchester City, considering the England international has scored 43 goals and registered 29 assists in 98 appearances for the club.

However, of the numerous players sold since 2022, many have gone on to flourish elsewhere, with one ex-Chelsea attacker, once compared to an all-time club legend, actually performing better than Palmer in 2025.

Cole Palmer’s importance to Chelsea
Talisman Palmer is sidelined at the moment, suffering a groin injury during the warm-up ahead of Chelsea’s 5-1 demolition of West Ham, not featuring since, and not expected to recover in time for Saturday night’s clash with Brentford.

This is far from ideal considering Enzo Maresca’s team travel to Bayern Munich for their Champions League opener on Wednesday, before facing Manchester United at Old Trafford three days later.

The table below emphasises Palmer’s importance last season.

As the table documents, in the Premier League last season, Palmer ranked first for pretty much every attacking metric at Chelsea last season.

Palmer 2024/25 PL stats

Stats

Palmer

Chelsea rank

Minutes

3,191

2nd

Goals

1st

Assists

1st

Shots

121

1st

Shots on target

1st

Big chances missed

2nd

Big chances created

1st

Key passes

1st

Shot-creating actions

202

1st

Progressive carries

120

3rd

Carries into final third

1st

Touches in final third

901

1st

Average SofaScore rating

7.63

1st

via FBref.com and SofaScore

This doesn’t even consider his contributions in other competitions, most notably bagging three goals en route to Club World Cup glory, scoring a quick-fire brace during the final demolition of Paris Saint-Germain at MetLife Stadium.

However, is a former Chelsea attacker actually outperforming Palmer this calendar year?

The former Chelsea forward with more goals than Palmer
Back in 2019, Christian Pulisic joined Chelsea from Borussia Dortmund in a deal worth £58m, signed in January before arriving in the summer, just as the club were hit with a transfer embargo, thereby prioritising youth under Frank Lampard.

Your star player or biggest flop has left the club but what are they doing in the present day? This article is part of Football FanCast’s Where Are They Now series.

This worked to Pulisic’s advantage, scoring 11 goals and providing ten assists during his debut campaign in West London, with four of each coming during project restart, with many Americans joking that “lockdown Pulisic” is the greatest player of all-time.

Upon his arrival, he asserted that he wanted to replicate his idol Eden Hazard, stating “he is a guy to look up to and what I would love to become”.

Well, 18 months later, Manchester United legend Paul Scholes aptly stated, “he looks the closest thing I’ve seen to Eden Hazard”, high praise indeed from a legend of the game.

The USMNT winger’s importance dwindled during the subsequent three campaigns, however, scoring just one goal during his final campaign with the club, thereby sold to AC Milan for around £18m in the summer of 2023.

Well, this has been a shrewd bit of investment because Pulisic bagged 15 goals and 11 assists during his first season with the Rossoneri, before increasing this to 17 goals and 12 assists last season.

To commence the new campaign too, he has also scored against Bari in the Coppa Italia and Lecce in Serie A, quickly establishing himself as a key figure in Massimiliano Allegri’s new-look side.

This means, in 2025, the American has now scored 11 club goals, five more than Palmer’s tally, having played just one more match.

Also, according to Football Transfers, this form has seen Pulisic’s value skyrocket up to around £41m, more than double the £18m he was sold to Milan for.

Thus, given that Chelsea have essentially become a player trading platform under Boehly’s ownership, they may regret selling the American for such a low fee and, who knows, had he stayed in West London, he could’ve been a key contributor, working in tandem with Palmer.