There hasn't been much to celebrate for Chelsea fans this season.
Mauricio Pochettino's inexperienced side are currently in 11th place in the Premier League and lost the League Cup final to Liverpool in heartbreaking fashion last month.
However, the west Londoners still have a chance to win the FA Cup, thanks to a 4-2 win over Leicester City in the quarter-finals a couple of weeks ago.
It wasn't a vintage performance from the Pensioners, but Cole Palmer, as he so often does, put on a brilliant display and showed why he's the team's most important player, something reflected in his new valuation.
Latest Chelsea transfer news
Palmer moved to Chelsea last summer for a fairly hefty fee of around £42.5m from treble winners Manchester City. This represented about 8.5% of their total summer spending, which amounted to a staggering £498.6m.
However, according to a report from Football Insider, the Wythenshawe-born sensation is now considered to be worth substantially more than that to Todd Boehly and Co. The club now values their star player at around £85m, or double the fee they paid for him just six months ago.
The former City ace has already established himself as one of, if not the best, attacker in the entire squad, and according to another Football Insider report last week, he could be set for a new contract to better reflect this.
That said, just how good has the youngster been in west London?
Why Palmer is worth so much
So far this season, the "exceptional" talent, as Pep Guardiola dubbed him, has made 34 appearances for the Blues, in which he has scored 14 goals – the most in the team – and provided 12 assists.
Position
Player
Goals
Assists
1
Cole Palmer
14
12
2
Nicolas Jackson
12
4
3
Raheem Sterling
8
10
4
Enzo Fernández
7
3
5
Mykhaylo Mudryk
6
3
He hasn't just been scoring tap-ins, consolation goals, or the fourth in a 4-0 thumping; the 21-year-old star has been scoring and assisting big goals for the club and, at times, single-handedly winning games for Pochettino.
For example, away to Luton Town, he scored a brace and provided an assist as the Blues ran out 3-2 winners; at Stamford Bridge, he scored a late equaliser against Manchester City; and away to Brentford earlier this month, he provided the assist for Axel Disasi's late equaliser.
It's not just his goals and assists that are impressive, either.
The 6 foot 2 ace's underlying numbers are brilliant, with FBref, which compares players in similar positions across Europe's top five leagues, placing him in the top 4% of attacking midfielders for assists, the top 10% for pass completion and progressive passes, and the top 12% for non-penalty expected goals and assists, all per 90.
Chelsea struck gold on special star who'd be 3x as valuable as Palmer today
The Blues legend is a genuine Premier League icon.
ByJack Salveson HolmesMar 27, 2024
In all, while a price tag of £85m might seem like an awful lot of money for a player who hasn't even played a full season of regular first-team football yet, it's probably justified given the impact he's had in west London and the number of goal involvements he has produced in such a short period.
