It's been an undeniably positive couple of weeks for Chelsea amid a season that has been tough to endure for fans.

A convincing win at Villa Park in the FA Cup was followed up by a 3-1 victory over Crystal Palace and then, perhaps most impressive of all, a 1-1 draw away to Manchester City.

However, while things are certainly looking up for Mauricio Pochettino and his team, there's no escaping from just how poor this season has been on the whole.

The immense amount of money spent in the summer has not translated into any real success on the pitch, which must be all the more frustrating for the club considering they once lost a youngster for just £180k who'd surely be one of the first names on the teamsheet today.

Chelsea's Mona Lisa

Cobham has produced some brilliant players in recent years who have gone on to excel at other clubs, such as Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori, Marc Guehi and Declan Rice, but there is one who looks destined to have the most extraordinary career of all, Jamal Musiala.

The young German joined the Blues' youth setup from TSV Lehnerz in 2011 and remained in West London for eight years before he opted to join Bayern Munich on July 7 2019, after turning down a long-term offer from Chelsea.

It was a significant loss for the Pensioners, as, despite being so young, his talent was evident to see, and just a year later, he was being described as "ice-cold" by Bayern's then reserve team manager, Sebastian Hoeneß.

However, it was the creator of the Golden Boy award, Massimo Franchi, who described Chelsea's loss the best when last year he claimed: "It would be like the Louvre losing the Mona Lisa!”. This big claim has since been backed up by his performances on the pitch for Bayern's first-team.

The worst part of it all, from the West Londoner's point of view anyway, was that they were only given £180k in exchange, which is only just enough to cover Marc Cucurella's wages for a week.

Why Jamal Musiala would star for Chelsea

So, unfortunately for Pochettino, with how the season has gone for Chelsea so far, it doesn't look like it would take all that much to improve the team, but even if they were playing to their maximum potential, there is no doubt that Musiala would still get in.

For example, across 47 appearances last season, the "incredible" German, as described by talent scout Jacek Kulig, scored 16 goals and provided 16 assists, meaning he averaged 0.68 goal involvements per match, which for someone who started the campaign as a 19-year-old is remarkable.

His rate of return has slowed somewhat this season, but considering he's still just 20 years old, the fact that he has scored eight goals and provided three assists in 26 appearances is out of this world.

It's not just at the club level where he has impressed either, as the Stuttgart-born gem has already won 25 senior caps for the German national team and was even referred to as the "Messi of the future" at the 2022 World Cup by Die Mannschaft legend Lothar Matthäus.

So, he's already got an impressive record and glowing endorsements from some of the best in the game, but how are his underlying numbers?

Well, rather unsurprisingly, they are fantastic. According to FBref, which compares players in similar positions across Europe's top five leagues in the last 365 days, Musiala ranks in the top 2% of attacking midfielders for successful take-ons, the top 4% for pass competition, the top 9% for interceptions, the top 14% for progressive passes and many more, all per 90.

Percentile

2%

4%

9%

14%

15%

16%

16%

20%

Finally, away from just his pure talent, if the Blues still had Musiala on their books and decided for whatever reason that they wanted to sell him today, they'd make a fair whack more than they did in 2019, as according to the CIES Football Observatory, the Bayern gem is now worth in the region of €150m, which is about £128m.

Chelsea once lost £3m gem who's outscoring Palmer this season

The former youth player is tearing it up in the league this season for another club.

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Ultimately, there is no doubt that had the 20-year-old dynamo accepted the Blues' long-term offer in 2019, Pochettino would have a terrific talent on his hands to lead the attack.