We’re saying there’s no player in the Premier League right now who can energize a home crowd like Estevao.
He’s a throwback. If it weren’t for his work off the ball, he might even be considered a maverick, but what we assume was the rigorous practice in training and refusal to treat his body with disdain.
When he gets on the ball, his butt rises off the seat. He’s electric. He has the ability to create something out of nothing, which is why he can change a game with a drop of the shoulder, a nutmeg, a tight turn, or a moment of genius with that split-second flash of toe past a defender.
“People love that type of player,” Enzo Maresca said, praising the 18-year-old’s ability to energize the crowd and his influence on the team after coming off the bench to score his second goal against Wolves on Saturday.
Read more: Enzo Maresca didn’t get the Chelsea credit he deserved from you, us or anyone else
Few things resonate more than the buzz of anticipation when a talented soccer player takes the ball. That sense of anticipation is so strong that it lifts Estevao, and Chelsea as a whole, and puts Willy and the others in opposition defenders, knowing full well that the crowd is waiting to be turned over by the boy with the ball at his feet.
The opinion of John Barnes, who is widely regarded as one of the best wingers in England’s history, and perhaps one of the best players, according to the CIES Football Observatory, could very well be the opinion we want on Estevao, who is currently the second most valuable teenager in the world at £104m, behind Lamine Yamal (£308m).
Culler was therefore surprised to hear that Barnes not only refused to board the Estevao train, but was also placed in the same slot as Jadon Sancho at Stamford Bridge.
“Estevao is a young player who came into the team and is doing well at the moment,” he told Video Gamer.
“But I remember Jadon Sancho did the same thing and on that basis I tend to leave my opinion about young players alone and wait for them to develop. We can’t start putting pressure on him yet.”
“The reality is he’s had 10 good games…he hasn’t done anything! He has a lot of potential, but we’ve seen it before with Chelsea and there are plenty of examples of things not working out.
“They have so many players that he’s not going to be a starter every week, but if he has some below-average performances, we could cut him in 10 more games.
“He has great potential and a lot of ability and could be a very good player, but at the moment he hasn’t done anything and hasn’t achieved anything.”
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You can’t help but be saddened by the way Barnes flatly refuses to be drawn into the furor over such an immensely talented footballer – it’s okay to be happy, John – and also to worry about the mental state of a man who could look at the respective performances of Estevao and Sancho at Chelsea and consider himself in some way the equivalent of a footballer.
Sancho wasn’t bad for Chelsea last season. But his notable moments, such as his stunning goal in a reckless 4-3 win at Tottenham, were met with a begrudging acceptance by those who watched the footballer, whose more obvious contribution at Chelsea was to endlessly receive the ball on the wing, take a few touches to slow the pace of the game, and then pass backwards: “He can still make a difference sometimes”.
The groans that often greet Sancho’s safety-first approach could not be more different from Estevao’s reaction when he receives the ball. “The fans will be happy,” Maresca said, and he hopes John Barnes will be one day, too.
