Dominic Calvert-Lewin was available on a free transfer in the summer window after leaving Everton with what must have felt like unfinished business.
Leeds United took their chance. Proven Premier League scorers dont land in managers laps every year and newly promoted Daniel Farke was able to bring in a Yorkshireman with years left ahead of him.
The reason there was little competition for Calvert-Lewins signature, the reason Everton and their long-standing striker parted ways in the first place, was his injury record. Whatever happens between now and May, Leeds faith has already been vindicated.
Calvert-Lewin and Leeds are proving to be a perfect fit
Only Erling Haaland, Igor Thiago and Antoine Semenyo have scored more Premier League goals this season than Calvert-Lewin. Hes scoring freely as Leeds make a convincing case for what once seemed an unlikely survival.
Nearly a third of Leeds Premier League goals have been scored by their 28-year-old freebie striker. When youre in the bottom five, that sort of impact is undeniably central, but further up the league and further down the scoring charts is another centre-forward whos quietly turning longevity into a pointed weapon.
Saturdays packed Premier League schedule sees Leeds welcome Fulham. Farke locks horns with Marco Silva and Calvert-Lewin could line up opposite Cottagers striker Raul Jimenez.
The 34-year-old isnt as prolific. Jimenez has scored five Premier League goals this season, tracking at a goal every three games or so, but his importance to Fulham as a focal point, a threat at set pieces and a defensive forward cant be ignored.
His work off the ball is among the most persistent and successful among strikers in the Premier League, and hes in the top 20 this season for goal contributions. Hes older by far than every player with more.
Where Calvert-Lewin has stayed fit and burst back into life in front of goal quite literally in front of goal, in his case Jimenez is just there, spearheading a top-half team, plugging and plugging and plugging away, chipping in with goals but offering so much more besides.
Leeds have other strikers but if you took every third goal away from them, theyd have a problem. Without Jimenez, Fulham would be a different team. Their entire structure would shift. Perhaps even as much as their Africa Cup of Nations absentees, Silva would badly miss his senior frontman.
Jimenezs link play and passing in attacking areas is a vital component of Fulhams play and there are few strikers in the division who can match him for it. Almost nobody in his position makes as many tackles in his own third.
Calvert-Lewin is more focused in the opposition penalty area and Leeds are reaping the benefits of his ability to be there, not only in the box but on the pitch at all. His 11 England caps were no fluke.
As they prepare to eyeball each other across the half-way line at Elland Road on Saturday like Gladiator and contender on the Duel podiums but thankfully without the intervention of Mark Clattenburg, Calvert-Lewin and Jimenez are adding to a burgeoning tradition of unfancied or unfashionable strikers becoming indispensable.
Chris Wood, slightly younger than the Mexican international centurion, scored 20 Premier League goals in 2024-25 and 14 the season before, helping to establish Nottingham Forest in the top-flight and ultimately firing them back into Europe.
The scoring form of 35-year-old Danny Welbeck for Brighton & Hove Albion in the first half of this season quite rightly put him in the frame for a return to the England squad.
The Premier League is not short of strikers and forwards with big names and big personalities, headline-makers and chance-takers, but theres also this subtle bubbling-under of streetwise penalty box craftsmen who are every bit as important to their managers.
Bargains arent easy to come by in the transfer market, especially when it comes to strikers with proven scoring ability in the Premier League. Leeds and Fulham are certainly getting more than their modest moneys worth.
