One of the many young players signed this summer by Chelsea was Caleb Wiley, the young left back brought in from Atlanta.
He’s heading straight to Strasbourg on loan, but first he’s got to finish Olympics duty with the USA team. Liam Twomey has done an interesting profile on the 19 year old for the Athletic, which reveals he’s hardly considered an unmissable talent – the flaws in his game are still clear for all to see.
The stats aren’t impressive – among 45 full backs who played consistently in MLS last season, he was 41st for number of crosses, 12th for chances created, 20th for progressive carries and 29th in take-on success rate.
His defensive numbers aren’t much better he was 45th out of 45 for duel win rate. We wonder what it is that Chelsea’s scouts have seen to make them so interested, beyond just the impressive number of games he has under his belt already as a teenager.
Despite these flaws, he’s expected to be an “immediate starter for Strasbourg” next year under Liam Rosenior. We will see how that shakes out…
Being realistic about Wiley’s potential
What you can glean from all that, despite the inevitable sheen of positivity poured over it, is that Wiley is not someone we should be expecting to see at Chelsea anytime soon. In fact, perhaps we shouldn’t be expecting to see him at all.
The piece makes it clear he’s got plenty of holes in his game, and it sounds like even stepping up to a top 5 European League at Strasbourg is going to be challenge enough, let alone coming to the Premier League.
An £8.5m fee means we’re inclined to think this guy might end up never playing a game for us – a £20m sale to Brighton in two years is what our crystal ball shows us – and that’s if everything goes right.
