Conor
Gallagher and Enzo Fernandez scored the goals that clinched Chelsea's 3-1
win over Crystal Palace on Monday. But it was no surprise to see Cole Palmer
have a hand in both.
After laying the ball back for Gallagher to score Chelsea's second, the
21-year-old played the through-ball for Fernandez to add the third. With six
assists to add to his 10 goals, he has been directly involved in nearly 40
per cent of Chelsea's total this season.
Where would they be without him? It hardly bears thinking about given they
sit 10th as it is. But it could easily have been their reality. Palmer was
an eleventh-hour signing and might never have arrived at all if not for the
influence of Joe Shields.
Chelsea's co-director of recruitment and talent, formerly of Manchester City
and Southampton, is said to have played a significant role in his arrival
from the Etihad Stadium, completed for a fee of £42.5m on the final day of
the summer transfer window.
The club's recruitment under Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali has of course
thrown up more questions than answers. But there can be no doubting the
wisdom of signing Palmer.
Not that it necessarily felt that way at the time.
Palmer had only started three Premier League games under Pep Guardiola. But
Shields was convinced of his potential having watched him closely across a
nine-year spell at City during which he rose to the role of head of academy
recruitment.
His work there, starting out as their academy scouting manager for the south
of the UK, earned him a stellar reputation, with Jadon Sancho among the many
players he identified and helped to recruit before moving to Southampton
and, subsequently, Chelsea.
His belief in Palmer has been emphatically vindicated and the hope for
Chelsea is that Romeo Lavia, another former City academy player who Shields
previously took to Southampton, will prove similarly successful once he
recovers from injury.
That would be another boon for Shields, who is only 36 but whose experience
in the industry spans two decades and whose journey to the top began at
grassroots level in Croydon, south London, in the form of community coaching
sessions in Thornton Heath.
"Joe had basically decided coaching wasn't for him," says Harry Hudson, who
worked at the same sessions and now runs the Kinetic Academy. "So, while I
was focusing on coaching, Joe was trying to go his own way, bringing players
to the sessions, finding gems.
"It was difficult because, 20 years ago, there weren't as many roles in
football as there are now. There was coaching, but there were no analysts.
Agents weren't as big a thing. Scouting was this back-of-a-fag-packet role
nobody really understood."
Shields was also coming at it as a teenager with no prior professional
experience in the industry.
"That made it even harder for him," adds Hudson. "But Joe just had this
incredible passion. He was so interested in being out and active in the
community finding players. He got an absolute buzz from it. You could see
that when he found someone.
"And then he had his ridiculous ability to spot talent."
It soon got him noticed. "When you're finding players, it quickly puts you
on the map," says Hudson. Part-time scouting roles at Crystal Palace and
Fulham followed. Even after going full-time at Palace, Shields continued
flagging players to Hudson.
One of them was striker Josh Maja, who has gone on to play for Sunderland,
Fulham, Bordeaux and West Brom while also representing Nigeria
internationally, and who now serves as one of many examples of Shields'
ability to forecast potential.
"Josh had just come out of Fulham's academy aged 13," says Hudson. "Joe
brought him into a session with us at Kinetic and told me, 'This player is
going to play in the Premier League one day'.
"I did the session and I wasn't convinced. I said, 'Joe, I don't see it, he
doesn't move well'. Joe just said, 'Trust me, he's got it. Work with him,
develop him and he will be there'.
"He was 100 per cent right but I didn't see it at the time. I didn't see
that long-term potential in Josh like Joe did. And I like to think of myself
as someone who can see talent."
Shields was even more confident on Sancho. He is sometimes credited for
"unearthing" the winger, which is not strictly true. But he was certainly
aware of his potential from early on.
"When Watford picked up Sancho, Joe said he would be in the England squad in
six years," says Hudson. "I remember saying to him, 'Are you joking? He's a
kid'. In the end he got there even quicker."
Shields' talent-spotting ability and exhaustive knowledge of the younger
market have been key to his rise in the industry. "He knows all the good
young players and all the kids who have potential," former Southampton boss
Ralph Hasenhuttl told Sky Sports after Shields' appointment as head of
senior recruitment at St Mary's in 2022. But he is similarly skilled at
building relationships.
"Having the foresight to think a player can be great is one thing but
convincing a coaching team at a club to actually sign that player is
probably the hardest part of any job in recruitment," says Hudson.
"Especially when we are talking about young players from areas such as south
London. A coach might have worked with their group for six months. They know
Jimmy will do what he is coached to do.
"So, if a player comes in who is a bit of a wildcard, who does things off
the cuff, it is only natural for the coach to have a bias towards the player
they already know and trust.
"It is often about having those relationships where you can get coaches and
staff members to see the vision you do. That is something Joe has always had
quite a unique ability for."
That ability is now being applied at the highest level. But, back in south
London, Shields is still known for his eagerness to help open doors for
young players, coaches and others who might be looking to break into the
world of recruitment.
"Even when Joe was working at City, there were players that he referred to
us at Kinetic," says Hudson. "At other times, I would go to him with a
player who I thought could get a deal, not at City but somewhere, and he
would always be eager to help.
"If he could see the player's potential, whether it was for Man City or
Ipswich Town, he would always try to help the kid and his family out. That's
something that is pretty unusual in football."
Shields retains family ties in the area. "He came down to our 10-year
anniversary match at Kinetic a few years ago, at Selhurst Park, to see us
all and talk to some of the players who have been through our programme,"
says Hudson.
"He spoke about players who have been released from professional academies
and might want to go into scouting and recruitment, that he would always be
there to help them in any way he could.
"He is in a different stratosphere now. He has come a long way from the
Croydon days. But I do genuinely believe that is true... It just might take
him a few more days to get back to you than it did."
Such are the demands of his role at Chelsea. Saturday's return to Manchester
City shines a light on the Cole Palmer success story. But, for Shields, the
search is now on to deliver more.
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