Diomande for Salah next: Ranking the last 10 replacements for Premier League legends | OneFootball

The Mohamed Salah mourning process effectively started last season as his presence in the Liverpool team became a hindrance rather than the almost unprecedented boon it had been for his previous eight goal-laden campaigns at the club.

The Reds are in hot pursuit of RB Leipzig’s Yan Diomande as the man to be handed the unenviable task of replacing the Egyptian hero at Anfield, but the teenager may find comfort in this list of the last ten replacements for Premier League legends.

The replacements weren’t necessarily signed in the same transfer window as the hero departed and one wasn’t signed at all. We’ve ranked them from worst to best.

10) Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool): Jeremie Frimpong

It’s gone well for no-one. Both Alexander-Arnold and Frimpong have spent large chunks of their respective debut seasons at Real Madrid and Liverpool injured, and when they have been fit they’ve each highlighted their unsuitability for their new clubs while being generally a bit rubbish.

Former Bayer Leverkusen boss Xabi Alonso has been tipped to reunite with Frimpong at Chelsea but there’s no chance he gets in ahead of Reece James in a back four and has shown very little to suggest he would be a preferred pick ahead of Malo Gusto if the Spanish boss opts for wing-backs.

9) Son Heung-min (Tottenham): Mathys Tel

Tel becoming the great attacking hope for Tottenham at the back end of the season was more evidence of the dire injury straits they faced rather than proof of a huge uptick in his performance level.

But there were at least signs of life in the Frenchman under Roberto De Zerbi that there hadn’t been under Ange Postecoglou, Thomas Frank or Igor Tudor, if all-too-scant signs of intelligence after he cancelled out his own stunning strike against Leeds by overhead-kicking Ethan Ampadu in the head to concede a penalty and two points in the relegation battle.

While he’s managed 11 goal contributions at a rate of one every 268 minutes for Tottenham, Son’s 274 goals/assists came every 117 minutes.

8) Harry Kane (Tottenham): Richarlison

Richarlison presumably arrived at Tottenham as Kane’s understudy in the summer of 2022 on the assumption that he would soon become the main man and sure enough, after just 12 starts in his debut season, the Brazilian was given the opportunity.

And he’s done an excellent job of proving just what an impossible task it was to replace a 280-goal striker when scoring goals falls well below celebrating goals you haven’t scored, winding up opposition players and being a bit of a tw*t in general on your list of redeemable qualities as a striker.

7) Eden Hazard (Chelsea): Christian Pulisic

Hazard moved to Real Madrid in the summer of 2019 for an initial £90m, which some reports claim rose to a ridiculous £140m after add-ons and bonuses in what must be one of the biggest transfer mistakes in football history.

Even assuming Hazard wouldn’t have been as terrible for Chelsea as he was for Madrid had he stayed, the Blues bosses – none of whom are still there – will have felt they did pretty well there, but will also acknowledge they could have spent the cash more wisely, even given they won the Champions League a couple of years later.

Chelsea couldn’t sign anyone to replace Hazard in 2019 as they were in the midst of a transfer ban, but Pulisic arrived at the club after a deal was agreed the year before. A combination of him and Callum Hudson-Odoi failed to match anything like Hazard’s output and Chelsea are still trying to find a adequate replacement for Hazard on the left wing.

6) Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City): Rayan Cherki

“I’m not here to replace De Bruyne,” said Tijjani Reijnders in June. Bang on, mate. Fortunately, City also signed Cherki in the summer.

The young Frenchman is more of a maverick than than De Bruyne, who was so brilliant because he would inevitably choose the path of least resistance to score or create a goal. That path was often far too challenging for every other footballer on the planet, mind you.

Cherki has a long way to go to be as consistent as De Bruyne or as much of a killer, and we wonder if we would prefer he never did take that step form mercurial to machine.

5) N’Golo Kante (Chelsea): Moises Caicedo

There was an everywhere-ness to Kante that has never and we suspect will never again be matched, but after a tricky initial period at Stamford Bridge in which several questions were asked as to what exactly the club had spent £100m on, Caicedo has proven to be about as good a replacement for the Duracell Bunny as they could have hoped for.

Here’s to seven(?!) more years.

4) Sadio Mane (Liverpool): Luis Diaz

Liverpool must have been feeling pretty smug after signing Luis Díaz for £37.5m before selling Mane to Bayern for £35m six months later. While Diaz was playing a key role in winning the Premier League in 2024/2025, Mane was in his second Saudi Pro League season for Al Nassr.

It’s a shame the Liverpool hierarchy wiped the smug smile from their own faces by selling a prime Diaz to Bayern for £65m last summer and relying on Cody Gakpo on the left wing to the extent that they would gladly have welcomed a 34-year-old Mane back to Anfield.

3) David Silva (Manchester City): Phil Foden

The last two seasons haven’t gone well for Foden, but the previous three post-Silva campaigns saw the academy graduate play more and more frequently and take on more and more responsibility, to the point where he was the main man in the 2023/2024 season, scoring 19 goals and claiming eight assists while clean-sweeping the individual Premier League awards.

2) Vincent Kompany (Manchester City): Ruben Dias

Pep Guardiola claims his only regret at Manchester City was not giving Joe Hart a chance to prove himself, but we suspect if he had his time again he might immediately source a replacement for Vincent Kompany when the club captain left the club in 2019.

Fernandinho played most of the next season at centre-back, meaning they suffered both in defence and in midfield, and they finished a distant second to Liverpool.

Dias arrived in the summer of 2020, along with Nathan Ake, and City won four consecutive Premier League titles.

1) Sergio Aguero (Manchester City): Erling Haaland

Aguero barely played in his last season at City and they still won the title, which gave them confidence to muddle through without him or indeed any striker to win it again in 2021/2022 before Haaland became available.

The Norwegian plundered 52 goals to help them to the treble in his debut season at the club and has barely stopped scoring since.