A Case Study in Big Club Bias

In what is turning out to be a futile attempt to get the hits up on this site again — after the glory days of 2012 — I’ve had to try and be active on social media, with Twitter being the poison of choice. And poison is the right word. Looking at all of the fans shouting at each other rather than just appreciating that there are lots of good players out there, one thing stood out. Big team bias is a very real thing (see also: Man lands on Moon). People are blinded by the kit rather than the performance. And so I’ve decided to perform a little case study to prove it.

At present, we’re blessed with some fantastic wide forwards — Olise, Yamal, Vini, Kvaradona, Saka — so it’s fertile ground to test my theory. But I need you all to be honest.

Three sets of data — last season, then three seasons, then the full five we have on the site. One extra row sits in every table. Name blanked, club blanked. This is league only for Europe’s top 5 leagues, with selected wide forwards included.

Guess as you go. No scrolling ahead. You might work it out, but you’ll still be surprised at his numbers — as someone not playing for a big club, the consistency is impressive.

Last season

2025/26, two of the three players in the hunt for this year’s Ballon d’Or are in the top 3. Olise has an incredible 34 goal involvements in just 32 league games. His teammate on the opposite wing isn’t too far behind with 29. Both scored 15 league goals. In third place is boy wonder Lamine Yamal who had his best ever league season with almost a G/A per game whilst still a teenager. And just after that, at Real Madrid, Vinícius Júnior with his best scoring season.

Wedged just ahead of Raphinha and above a fading Salah (but still the standard bearer for the wide forward) is our mystery player. He’s in good company here and ahead of some pretty big names, including the £100m+ Barcola.

He scored 9 league goals and added 11 assists to make it a third consecutive league season with 20 or more goal involvements. Take away penalties and he moves ahead of Vinícius Júnior.

Three seasons

Same approach but seeing it over a longer period — handily this is from when Palmer joined Chelsea and Olise joined Bayern (midway through 2023/24).

Make no bones about it, Salah is the king of wide forwards in recent years — in Europe’s top five leagues since those other two lads went further afield. In 97 league games for Liverpool, he had a hand in an impressive 89 goals — including 47 GI in 2024/25. Olise 77, remains in the top three followed by Cole Palmer (67 GI in 97 games).

And our mystery man is now up into 4th with a decent 63 goal involvements in 106 games. In fact, if you take penalties out (as some insist) then he moves into 3rd across Europe’s top 5 leagues for the past three seasons. Must be an obviously big name to leave Vini, Díaz, Lamine, Saka, Kvara, etc. behind. And there’s 14 GI against Top 6 positioned teams as well. Big game player perhaps?

But……you know that I’m trying to prove a point, so it’s not a player at one of the elite clubs. Which in theory makes the achievement even better. What are you thinking? Villa? Spurs? Maybe Atlético Madrid?

Five seasons

Okay, this might help a bit — someone needs to have been on the scene for a bit longer. If we include 2021/22 through to 2025/26 — then we see a similar tale. Salah on top, Olise in the top 3, now Vini into the top 2. Salah is on a different level here with 156 goals or assists. After that, if you take penalties out, it’s Vini on 99, Olise on 96 and mystery player on 93. Saka, Raphinha and Palmer all drop — 83, 77, and 50 respectively. A good bit behind our man albeit having played fewer games.

He also delivers against good teams too — with 21 goals or assists against the league’s Top 6. And it’s not one of the so called weaker leagues. It’s the Premier League. And this was not a big money signing, but someone signed from the Championship and now back there again.

If your mental list of “best wide players in Europe” did not have a space for this row, that is not a football opinion. That is a kit opinion.

Step forward Jarrod Bowen

Jarrod Bowen. West Ham. Of course it is. The man who has been 20-plus GI in four of the five seasons we track, who does it without a title race, with a weaker supporting cast and without anyone outside East London putting him on a shortlist next to Saka and Palmer. The one season he “only” managed 11 was 2022/23, and he spent the June of it scoring the winner in a European final. Dreadful campaign, clearly.

This is the bit big-club bias actually costs you. No awards, no team of the season shouts but in terms of productivity, Salah aside, he’s been the best in the Premier League. For three of the five seasons, he was in a bottom half of the table club.

Meanwhile, Madueke went to the World Cup

Noni Madueke made England’s 2026 World Cup squad. Bowen did not. One of them has 96 league involvements in five years and a winner in a European final on his account. The other has 21 league involvements in five years. This isn’t a dig at Madueke, this is evidence of big club bias. You expect it from the fans, it’s a bit worrying if the national team manager also has it. We’ve seen it before with Matt Le Tissier, it’s a shame.

Not much interpretation is needed here — non-pen goal involvements from Bowen is over 0.52 per game (one every second game). Madueke by comparison is 0.21 — or roughly one every 5 games.

Madueke can play. The Conference run at Chelsea was decent, two in a quarter, one in a semi. He is fast and he is young and Tuchel-or-whoever is allowed to like him. What he is not, on this site, is a better wide forward than Jarrod Bowen. Last season he was not in the same conversation. The five-year table isn’t comparable at all. He might develop to get to those numbers, he’s still young, but he’s not there yet.

For the World Cup, Saka went. Madueke went. Bowen watched it on TV. 180 league games, 96 involvements, 21 of them against strong opposition, and a last minute winner in a European final. That sort of temperament and playing for a team without much of the ball might have been useful in the US.

So

Be honest, did you guess it before you saw the name? If so, you’re probably a West Ham fan or a keen Fantasy Football player. If you didn’t, fear not, you’re not alone.

Olise is still the league winger of the last two years. Yamal is still the one the internet will pick. Doué still has the Champions League final. And there is the eye test — Bowen doesn’t have as many clips. But he is just as effective, if not more.

The point is the row you skip because the club is West Ham. Four 20-GI seasons out of five. Ahead of both Saka and Palmer without the pens. Ahead of the World Cup winger by a factor of four.

If I’d have done this with attacking midfielders then you’d have overlooked Morgan Gibbs-White. It seems to be the way we’re now fed football — look at the big shiny things, ignore the rest.

One more, without the penalties

Same three seasons as above, 2023/24 through 2025/26, with every penalty taken out of the goals and the GI. This is the version Palmer does not survive.