Harry Kane to United: How well do players perform away from their boyhood club?

Amid a 6-1 defeat at St James Park on Sunday, recent reports stating that Manchester United are keen to sign Harry Kane in the Summer may transpire. Could we see the Spurs striker finally leave his boyhood club?

Intrigued by this, Live Football Tickets were keen to explore how performance levels differ when players move from their boyhood club to a new team. After creating a seed list of notable players who left their boyhood club for pastures new, our experts utilised FBref to compare the average number of goals and assists each player achieved at both clubs per match. This then ultimately determined which, if any, players performed better after their move.

Key Findings:

• Players who moved from West Ham to Chelsea [i.e., Frank Lampard and Joe Cole] had an average form improvement of 194.93%.
• Frank Lampard had the biggest improvement in performance across all players when he moved from West Ham United to Chelsea (+146.53%).
• Alan Smith’s performance levels decreased by 90.63% when he moved to Manchester United from boyhood club Leeds United, the lowest of all footballers in our study.

Players who improved the most at their succeeding club

			Boyhood club			Succeeding club
Rank	Player	Boyhood Club	Goals scored [per 90m]	Goals assisted [per 90m]	Moved to	Goals scored [per 90m]	Goals assisted [per 90m]	Form improvement
1.	Frank Lampard	West Ham United	0.18	0.08	Chelsea	0.37	0.23	+146.53%
2.	Joe Cole	West Ham United	0.12	0.07	Chelsea	0.23	0.21	+145.83%
3.	Aaron Lennon	LeedsUnited	0.05	0.14	Tottenham Hotspur	0.12	0.21	+95.00%
4.	RaheemSterling	Liverpool	0.23	0.18	ManchesterCity	0.48	0.23	+68.24%
5.	Wayne Rooney	Everton	0.36	0.14	Manchester United	0.52	0.26	+65.08%
6.	Callum Wilson	CoventryCity	0.54	0.07	A.F.C Bournemouth	0.41	0.13	+30.82%
7.	Emile Heskey	Leicester City	0.27	0.14	Liverpool	0.33	0.17	+21.83%
8.	Stewart Downing	Middlesbrough	0.09	0.17	Aston Villa	0.15	0.13	+21.57%
9.	Robbie Fowler	Liverpool	0.57	0.14	Leeds United	0.6	0.19	+20.49%
10.	Danny Welbeck	Manchester United	0.35	0.16	Arsenal	0.33	0.23	+19.02%

The full dataset which was used throughout this study can be found here

Frank Lampard’s form improved most after moving from West Ham

Live Football Tickets can reveal Frank Lampard’s move from West Ham United to Chelsea had the best effect on form, with a 146.53% improvement in goals and assists per game. The central-midfielder doubled his goal-to-game ratio at Chelsea (0.37) compared to his time at West Ham (0.18), the biggest increase of all players listed. Lampard also went on to score an average of 0.23 assisted goals per game at Chelsea, almost triple the number than at his former club (0.08 per match).

Central-midfielder Joe Cole also moved from West Ham to Chelsea and saw a staggering 145.83% increase in pitch performance, placing him second on the list. Cole doubled the number of goals scored per game after his move, (0.12 West Ham vs 0.23 Chelsea), and had triple the number of assists (0.07 West Ham; 0.21 Chelsea).

Ranking third is Aaron Lennon, whose performance increased by 95% following his move from home-club Leeds United to Tottenham Hotspur. This was largely contributed by the right-winger scoring 180% more goals (0.05; 0.12) and 75% more goal-assists (0.14; 0.21) for his succeeding team.

Players whose performance worsened after moving from their boyhood club

			Boyhood club			Succeeding club
Rank	Player	Boyhood Club	Goals scored [per 90m]	Goals assisted [per 90m]	Moved to	Goals scored [Per 90m]	Goals assisted [Per 90m]	Form improvement
1.	Alan Smith	Leeds United	0.26	0.16	Manchester United	0	0.03	-90.63%
2.	Andy Carroll	Newcastle United	0.46	0.24	Liverpool	0.21	0.07	-62.59%
3.	Daniel Sturridge	Manchester City	0.72	0.43	Chelsea	0.41	0.09	-61.06%
4.	Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain	Southampton	0.35	0.31	Arsenal	0.13	0.2	-49.17%
5.	Ollie Watkins	Exeter	0.37	0.14	Brentford	0.38	0.11	-12.93%

The full dataset which was used throughout this study can be found here

Alan smith saw a 90.63% decrease in form moving from Leeds United to the Red Devils

Alan Smith’s performance levels dropped the most when moving from his boyhood club, with an overall decrease of 90.63%. Following the move from Leeds to Manchester United, Smith failed to score any goals as opposed to an average of 0.26 goals per match at Leeds United. Assists also saw an 81% decline, from an average of 0.16 per game at his home club, to 0.03 at Manchester United.

Ranking second is Andy Carroll, whose performance decreased by 62.59% following his move from home-club Newcastle United to Liverpool. The centre-forward scored 53% fewer goals and 71% fewer assists for his succeeding team, largely contributing to his overall decline in form.

Daniel Sturridge moved from boyhood club Manchester City to Chelsea in 2009, where his performance worsened by almost two-thirds (61.06%). Sturridge averaged at 0.72 goals per game at City; however, was unable to match this performance at Chelsea, scoring almost half that (0.41) per game. His number of assists also saw a steep decline of 79% following his move from Manchester City.