The Starboy Sauce: Monday Night SCOUTED
The Starboy Sauce: Monday Night SCOUTED
Bukayo is back.
Good evening all. Welcome to Jake Entwistle’s first day in the SCOUTED office.
Every Monday, Jake will be helming Monday Night SCOUTED — a new quickfire newsletter in which he nooooootices something from the weekend’s action.
To ease himself in, on an evening in which Tottenham Hotspur make their league bow, he’s noticing an Islington Starboy. Heh. Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to introduce the BUKAY-Ometer. Here’s Jake to tell you all about it.
No More Mr Nice Starboy
I find it easy to forget Bukayo Saka is 22.
Does that mean we can forgive the fact that he continues to be dismissed as one of the best, one of the most consistent and most decisive players in the Premier League?
Nope.
And his shrug after the ‘fuck it, I’m Bukayo Saka’ moment against Wolves on Saturday suggests that there will be no more Mr Nice Starboy.
So, in his final season within the original SCOUTED age bracket - he turns 23 in September - what body of work can he build to earn the respect his talent deserves?
As an introduction to what I find interesting and what I will look to explore in these articles until somebody tells me they are rubbish, I’ve pulled together five targets ranging from Extra Mild to Extra Hot, a nod to his signature sauce at Nando’s.
Let’s cook.
The Double-Double: double figures in goals, double figures in assists.
I would be baffled if Saka does not tick this off. For instance, he was the only player across Europe’s big five leagues to attempt 5+ shots and create 5+ chances on the opening weekend of the 2024/25 season, leaving the Emirates with one goal and one assist.
Saka’s first Double-Double came in the 2022/23 season. His 14 goals and 11 assists is the joint-sixth best goal contribution tally by a player aged 21-or-under during a Premier League campaign.
Theo Walcott, Santi Cazorla (both 2012/13) and Alexis Sánchez (2016/17) were the previous three Arsenal players to achieve this feat. But only Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry have done it twice for the club.
In fact, only 15 different players have recorded multiple Double-Double Premier League campaigns. If Saka were to join the list this season, he would be the fourth-youngest to achieve the feat after Chris Sutton, Wayne Rooney and Leroy Sané.
Only nine goals and nine assists to go…
🌶️ BUKAY-Ometer: Mild
As Mohamed Salah has proven, 10+ goals and 10+ assists is almost the minimum for a wide-forward to be considered a world-leader in their position. So, once Saka ticks of the Double-Double, becoming the 20th player to provide 15 assists in a Premier League campaign should be next.
Cesc Fàbregas holds the record as the youngest player to achieve this feat, doing so in 2007/08. He turned 21 in May of that season. 10 years later, Leroy Sané become the second-youngest, providing 15 (and scoring 10 himself) during Man City’s Centurions season. Saka will become the third-youngest if he succeeds.
The imminent arrival of Mikel Merino to Arsenal should help. Expect to see Saka dip into the Lamine Yamal bag of tricks and send more crosses to the far post. In Havertz and Merino, he will have two premium aerial threats to aim for - his assist against Wolves is a sign of things to come.
🌶️ BUKAY-Ometer: Medium
According to Stathead by FBref, only 20 players have started a Big-5 league season aged 22-or-under and reached 30+ goals and assists combined. I have attached a screenshot of the list and FBref’s data coverage below.
As you can see, only eight players have done so in the Premier League. Of those eight, only Cristiano Ronaldo and Cole Palmer would not be considered centre-forwards.
Saka has reached 25 goals + assists in each of the previous two seasons. Entering the 30+ bracket is the natural step he needs to make to be universally appreciated as a world class player.
🌶️ BUKAY-Ometer: Hot
30 goals + assists does not guarantee Saka will reach this particular milestone. And although 16 goals and 14 assists would be an arbitrary difference, the list of names that have achieved this feat should remove Saka from any brain-rot discussions about output in the future.
Eric Cantona, Matt Le Tissier, Thierry Henry, Lionel Messi (x5), Eden Hazard (x2), Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suárez, Jadon Sancho, Kylian Mbappé and Antoine Griezmann. These are the only players on FBref’s database with 15+ goals and 15+ assists in a single Big-5 European league season.
And only two have 20/20 vision: Thierry Henry and Lionel Messi.
🌶️ BUKAY-Ometer: Extra Hot
Saka has name checked Cristiano Ronaldo as his idol multiple times. So it is fitting that the ultimate goal this season should be to match one of the Premier League’s most incredible feats.
In 2006/07, a 22-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo became the first player to win these five awards in a single season: PFA Players’ Player of the Year, PFA Young Player of the Year, PFA Fans’ Player of the Year, FWA Footballer of the Year, Premier League Player of the Season. And he was also included in the PFA Team of the Year, unsurprisingly.
No one has done it since.
In 2022/23, Saka was named PFA Young Player of the Year, the only award Erling Haaland needed to repeat the feat. Sensibly, the PFA Young Player of the Year criteria has been altered - eligible players must now be aged 21 or under as of July 1 immediately preceding the season.
However, the Premier League Young Player of the Season award remains capped at 23. So, if Saka achieves all targets laid out on the BUKAY-O-Meter, he could repeat Ronaldo’s clean sweep from 17 years ago in some form.
After that, all eyes on the Ballon d’Or.
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