How the PL's record goal scorers faired in their breakthrough top-flight seasons

Shearer

After big-name young strikers like Erling Haaland and Darwin Nunez made big-money moves to the Premier League this summer… how will their first seasons’ compare to the division’s all-time top scorers?

Their huge price tags come with big expectations, but surprisingly, even the greatest strikers of all time did not necessarily get off to a flying start in their careers. 

Check out this article to see how the top five Premier League all-time top goal scorers faired in their first season playing regularly in the topflight, which we have determined as playing 20 games.  

 

Alan Shearer (Southampton 1991-1992) - 260 Premier League goals

Alan Shearer is simply one of the most prolific goal scorers of all time, winning three consecutive Golden Boots between 1994 and 1997 in the prime of his career. He won one Premier League title with Blackburn Rovers in the 1994-95 season, as well as an FA Cup with his beloved hometown club Newcastle United. 

His stats from his first season playing regular top-flight football aren’t incredible, although he showed signs of his undisputed talent. This came in the second-to-last season of the old-style First Division, playing for Southampton at 20 years old. 

He scored only three goals in 20 league appearances for the Saints, but there was still a LOT of hype around the young English forward at the time. In all competitions, he scored 13 in 41 games and for England under 21s he scored seven goals in four games in the Toulon tournament. This was enough to earn Shearer his first call up to the England first team. 

Following that campaign, Shearer became the most expensive player in British football when he moved to Blackburn Rovers on a £3.6 million transfer… which at the time was a LOT of money. I think it’s fair to say he was worth it though. 

If we compare 20-year-old Shearer to 20-year-old Haaland… the numbers suggest, in theory, that the Norwegian striker could chase down his scoring record, as when he was 20, he scored 27 goals in 28 appearances for Borussia Dortmund. But we know it doesn’t always work out as easy as that. 

So, the expectations for Haaland’s first season are clearly a lot higher than they were for Shearer despite being a similar age… but I suppose that’s what comes with a £51.1 million price tag.  

Played: 20  
Assists: 0
Goals: 3
Goals per game: 0.15
Minutes per goal: 562’

 

Wayne Rooney (Everton 2002-03) – 208 Premier League goals 

“Remember the name, Wayne Rooney…” It was the 2002-03 Premier League season when a 17-year-old Wazza burst onto the scene with a stunning debut goal against Arsenal and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Five Premier League titles, an FA Cup, three League Cups, a Europa League, a Club World Cup and a Champions League… Rooney had quite a successful career. He led the line for Manchester United and England for over a decade and at one stage was considered not far behind Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. 

He was younger than both Nunez and Haaland when he first started playing regularly for his boyhood club Everton, scoring six goals in 33 appearances. If Nunez or Haaland registered that tally in 2022-23… I think it’s fair to say that would be considered a poor campaign. But, for a 17-year-old Rooney, it was a great start to his career. He was quick, a battler, had an eye for goal and wasn’t afraid to shoot from anywhere. 

But as mentioned, players like Darwin Nunez will have to try and do better than that in their first Premier League season to justify their hefty price tag. Darwin Nunez was only making one appearance per campaign in the Argentinian topflight when he was 17 though, so Rooney was used to the expectation to score goals from a younger age than him. 

Will Nunez live up to expectations at Liverpool as well as Wazza did at United? 

Played: 33
Assists: 1
Goals: 6
Goals per game: 0.18
Minutes per goal: 264

 

Andrew Cole (Newcastle 1993-94) - 187 Premier League goals

Another Premier League icon, Andy Cole broke into the Newcastle United team in the 1992-93 season, scoring 12 goals in 12 appearances, so he was already an established goal scorer by the 1993-94 campaign where he played almost every match for the Toon, despite only being 22. 

He had an incredible career, scoring 187 Premier League goals overall, winning five Premier League titles, two FA Cups and a Champions League with Manchester United, as well as a League Cup with Blackburn Rovers. 

It’s fair to say Cole’s career skyrocketed after the ’93-’94 season with Newcastle, when he won his first and only Golden Boot, scoring 34 goals in 40 appearances (back when there were 22 teams in the league). For a 22-year-old, at the time, numbers like that were extremely rare and still are today. Haaland and Nunez got close to those numbers last season but were still 10 or so goals away from that.  

Andy Cole remained at Newcastle for another season, before moving to Manchester United in a £7 million deal which set a new record for the most expensive British transfer.

Erling Haaland has just turned 22 years old; could he get anywhere near Andy Cole’s 34-goal season at the same age? City fans will be hoping he can. 

Played: 40
Assists: 13
Goals: 34
Goals per game: 0.85
Minutes per goal: 106’

 

Sergio Aguero (Manchester City 2011-12) – 184 Premier League goals 

Sergio Agueroooooo moved to Manchester City from Atletico Madrid in 2011 on a £36 million club-record move as one of the biggest signings of the new billionaire-owned City era. Like Nunez and Haaland, he had the pressure of already being an established goal scorer, so big things were expected of him and he definitely lived up to the expectation. 

At 21 years old in his first season at the Etihad, the Argentinian scored 23 goals in 34 matches, making 10 assists, with an average of 0.97 goal contributions per game. He also ended up scoring THAT goal against QPR on the final day of the season to give City their first top-flight league title since 1968. 

In his time at City, he won five Premier League titles, an FA Cup and five League Cups, averaging around 20 goals per season up until his departure in 2021. If Haaland can score important goals like Aguero did and come up with those kinds of numbers, I’m sure Pep Guardiola would be more than happy with the Norwegian. But… can he do it in his first season in the Premier League like Sergio did?  

Played: 34
Assists: 10
Goals: 23
Goals per game: 0.68
Minutes per goal: 113’

 

Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur 2014-15) – 183 Premier League goals

The final player on this list and the only one who is still playing today …. Harry Kane could end up getting close to Alan Shearer’s record if he plays top-flight football into his mid-to-late 30s. The Spurs star man is another player who had a lot of hype around him as a youngster, but no one could predict just how good he would become. 

At Spurs for his entire career, Kane had some successful loan stints in the lower divisions, firstly with Leyton Orient in League One, then with Millwall in the Championship: where he scored seven goals in 22 games at just 19 years old. He then went on loan to Norwich and Leicester, where he showed potential but never played regularly.

From 2013 onwards he has played only for Spurs. He had a good breakthrough season for the club, scoring three goals in 17 matches in the 2013-12 season. By the end of the campaign, he had become a regular starter. 

When he realised his potential and became a regular starter though was in the 2014-15 season, when he was one of the first names on the team sheet for Tottenham. In 34 appearances, he scored 21 goals and made 5 assists, averaging a goal for every 123 minutes he was on the pitch. 

Since then, he has won three Premier League Golden Boots and seems to be only getting better, for both his club and country. 

Played: 34
Assists: 5
Goals: 21
Goals per game: 0.62
Minutes per goal: 123’

Given how much Liverpool and Manchester  City have paid for Nunez and Haaland, it’s likely they will be starting most games next season. The pressure will be on them both to replicate the league performances of these legends and go on to have just-as-successful careers. Will they live up to these sky-high expectations? 

What’s for sure is that it will be very interesting to watch them both next season.