The 19-year-old has had a rollercoaster start to the season. George looked destined to leave his boyhood club for Fulham on transfer deadline day in a bid to earn more first-team chances following the signings of Jamie Gittens and Alejandro Garnacho.
Now, he has more goal contributions than those two combined and is proving Chelsea wrong for trying to offload such a talented academy graduate with every minute he spends on the pitch.
A young lad who provides big moments
At the back end of last season, Chelsea weren’t at their best but they managed to grind out results and secure a place in the top four. That could have been a totally different story to George hadn’t scored against Fulham.
Their 2-2 draw against Ipswich in their previous Premier League game, and then a 2-1 Europa Conference League defeat to Legia Warsaw, their only in the competition, had fans and pundits up and down the country all but ruling Chelsea out.
Fulham took the lead after just 20 minutes through Alex Iwobi. Chelsea kept coming at them, but the home side resisted without breaking much of a sweat. All of that changed when Enzo Maresca rolled the dice and brought George on.
Five minutes after the winger’s introduction, he fired past Bernd Leno from long range. Chelsea had their tails up, and Pedro Neto would go on to score a winner in the 93rd minute, but George was the catalyst, scoring arguably Cheslea’s most important goal of the season.
That was Chelsea’s first away win since their 4-3 win over Tottenham in December, and they would go on to win four of their last five Premier League games, thanks in large part to young George.
He came to the rescue again recently. Chelsea were hapless against League One Lincoln in their first Carabao Cup game of the season, a game they should have won comfortably. Instead, they were 1-0 down at half time.
In desperate need of a moment of magic, George stepped up, and after the ball fell to him, coming off a Lincoln defender, he hit it on the half volley, and just like that, two minutes after half time, it was all level.
Facundo Buonanotte scored in the 50th minute to help spare some potentially major Chelsea blushes.
Sending a message to fellow Cobham stars
Chelsea have arguably the best academy in the country, with Man City the other likely claimant to the title in recent years. If you can think of a young English player in the Premier League, it’s likely their had a stint at the club.
Reece James, Trevoh Chalobah, Levi Colwill, and now Josh Acheampong have all come through Cobham to establish themselves as key players under Enzo Maresca but even more have been shipped off as the club seeks to sate its never-ending need for transfers.
Chelsea spent around £200 million on new forwards this summer, yet, across all competitions, George is out scoring all of them. Perhaps shiny and new isn’t always better after all.
Maresca has shown he is more than willing to give young academy stars a chance, he was the manager to give George his debut, and welcoming the winger back into the fold after nearly leaving sends a clear message to the next generation, if you work hard enough, you’ll get a chance.
Rio Ngumoha is a prime example, leaving Chelsea for Liverpool in pursuit of a clearer pathway to the first team, and it’s worked out well for the 17-year-old. They’ll be hoping the likes of Shim Mheuka, Reggie Walsh, and Ryan Kavuma-McQueen take George’s route instead.
Verdict
George may never be an undroppable starter for Chelsea, and there is a strong chance he still leaves at some point either during the season or after it, but his story over the past few months is one of a young man who refuses to give up on a dream.
Chelsea are lucky to have such determined young players at their disposal, they shouldn’t write them off.