Eberechi Eze would be great for Arsenal, and the Crystal Palace star is one of five former academy players who could fix issues were they to return to the clubs that let them go this summer.
Eberechi Eze to Arsenal
“There’s bare rejections,” said Eze, reflecting on his time bouncing from one club to another as a teenager. He was at Arsenal for five years before being released as a 13-year-old, then had brief spells at Fulham, Reading and Millwall before breaking through at QPR.
Looking at him now it’s hard to imagine any coach not appreciating what he had to offer, and Arsenal, who are currently on the lookout for central midfielders and back-up options for their overworked wingers, must be cursing the lack of foresight from those overseeing their youth set-up.
There are few better in the Premier League at dribbling out of tight spots and he certainly wouldn’t look out of place drifting around the pitch on big European stages.
Romeo Lavia to Man City
You’ve got to wonder what Manchester City made of Chelsea’s interest in Lavia last summer. The midfielder they had sold to Southampton for £10.5m weeks before was the subject of a £50m bid by the Blues on deadline day.
Had City wanted their academy graduate to move to a team that (ridiculous though it now sounds) would have been considered a rival, they probably would have liked the forty-odd million extra quid Southampton were offered by Todd Boehly and his free-spending Clearlake associates.
“We had, and we have, an incredible opinion about him,” Pep Guardiola said of the teenager, for whom City hold a £40m buyback option. But that does not kick in for another year, by which point he could well be tearing it up at Chelsea, or indeed Arsenal, who are very much in the race to sign him.
Declan Rice to Chelsea
For a long while it seemed Rice’s return to Chelsea was a foregone conclusion. Released as a 14-year-old, Rice would be back at Stamford Bridge to right wrongs and spend every waking moment with the best of all best pals Mason Mount.
He’s now more likely to play alongside his buddy at Manchester United, though despite Luke Shaw’s best efforts, Rice now appears destined for Arsenal.
Had Chelsea not entirely f***ed it last season, spending six Declan Rices on very little as they failed to qualify for the Champions League, they would surely still be in the running for the midfielder all the big boys want.
Noni Madueke to Tottenham
“It is the biggest club in London,” said Madueke on his arrival at Stamford Bridge in a thinly-veiled dig at his former club, before helping Chelsea to a 12th-placed finish in the Premier League, below Spurs and four further London rivals.
He wasn’t bad for Chelsea though, which is a huge compliment given the circumstances. It’s easy to imagine him thriving under Mauricio Pochettino, though Spurs clearly struggle in the imagination stakes given Poch was Spurs manager when Madueke left for PSV Eindhoven in 2018.
Armando Broja is another young Chelsea player who slipped through the Spurs net.
Harry Kane to Arsenal
Concerned by the ‘running and athletic ability’ of the man who has since scored 14 goals against them in north London derbies, Arsenal released a 12-year-old Kane and passed up the opportunity to re-sign him two years later after another couple of seasons of ridiculous goalscoring for his Sunday league side that would prophesise his Premier League career.
“We said we already let him go once and we felt a little bit embarrassed to go and watch him again. So we had to stick to our guns,” recalls former Arsenal assistant academy manager Roy Massey.
Kane scored nearly three times as many goals as Gabriel Jesus last season, and more than three times as many as Kai Havertz.
READ: A step-by-step guide to show Harry Kane has actually scored precisely zero proper goals for England
