Considered one of the greatest managerial and tactical minds in world football, Pep Guardiola has been quite vocal about his players in recent interviews. Earlier this week, the Spanish manager also expressed his acknowledgment of De Bruyne and Haaland’s huge impact on his team’s good performances.
Thus, in recent times, the manager has been asked about the players that he has managed in the past, and the latest addition to the list is former Manchester City player Cole Palmer. The Spanish tactician has shared interesting insights regarding Palmer’s move to Chelsea last summer.
Pep Guardiola sheds light on Cole Palmer’s exit
In a recent pre-match conference ahead of Manchester City’s important Premier League match against Chelsea, the club’s manager Pep Guardiola was asked about the situation of Cole Palmer and the reason behind the player opting to go to Chelsea despite winning the treble with the Manchester City squad last season.
In response to the controversial inquiries, the Spanish manager has shouldered all the responsibility, acknowledging that he didn’t intend for the player to join another club. However, due to not giving Palmer enough playing time compared to Foden, the player opted to join Chelsea, where he’s been performing excellently.
“If Palmer had the minutes I gave to Foden from the beginning, he would be at Man City. But I didn’t give it to him, it’s my responsibility.”
When asked about the reason behind not giving Cole Palmer minutes, Guardiola responded, “Why? Because I had Bernardo, Mahrez, Foden… it was that at that moment, I chose the other ones.”
🔵 Pep Guardiola: "If Palmer had the minutes I gave to Foden from the beginning, he would be at Man City".
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) February 17, 2024
"But I didn’t give it to him, it’s my responsibility".
"Why? Because I had Bernardo, Mahrez, Foden… it was that in that moment, I chose the other ones". pic.twitter.com/GTFSH4HGO5
The manager has been feeling guilty over his decision and is aware of his threat in the upcoming match, especially given how well the player has been performing this season with Chelsea after he departed from Manchester last summer.
Despite winning the treble in the last season, Premier League club Manchester City let go of many players including the likes of Cole Palmer aka “Cold Palmer” to Chelsea, Riyad Mahrez to a Saudi club, and Ilkay Gundogan to Barcelona, whose wife recently was vocal about the difficulties of living a life as a WAG.
Those players were replaced by recent signings due to which the team has still not found their perfect rhythm yet in the current season and the injury issues haven’t helped them either.
Cole Plamer’s performance at Chelsea
Chelsea signed Cole Palmer at the very end of the summer transfer window for a whopping 42.5 million Euros which also took their spending spree on transfers to over 1 billion Euros under Todd Boehly.
When the player was signed, fans and pundits were very cautious of the amount of money spent on him and were not convinced by the player’s unremarkable 41 appearances with Manchester City despite good cameos off the bench in many matches.
However, Pep Guardiola recently acknowledged that the lack of opportunities wasn’t the player’s fault but rather a result of the abundance of talent in the Manchester City squad at that time.
Palmer has been giving consistent out-of-the-world performances for Chelsea this season despite his team not doing too well in the league. He is currently Chelsea’s leading goal scorer despite being regularly deployed as a CAM by the Argentine manager Mauricio Pochettino.
His effectiveness and quickness in front of the goal and his technical ability to create chances for his team are quite underrated as he is a single spark in the whole Chelsea squad this season.
Cola Palmer has 14 goals and 9 assists for Chelsea across all competitions and these numbers are just majestic for any midfielder but in his situation, where the whole team has been underperforming consistently, these numbers are absolutely incredible. Just the thought of what Cole Palmer could have done till now if his team had been performing a bit better, could make the skin crawl for many players and managers of rival clubs
With Chelsea’s most recent fixture against his former club to be played in a few hours, Cole Palmer will be more motivated than ever to prove a point to all the pundits and especially to the Manchester City board that the player is here to succeed and is going to be a star in the future that the club missed out on because of their hard luck and inconsistent decisions.
Do you think Cole Palmer could create havoc in the game against Manchester City? Or will Chelsea’s overall poor performances overshadow Palmer’s talent yet again as it happened in the reverse fixture against Manchester City at Stamford Bridge in November? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
