Cole Palmer

[BlueMoonRisin’]

Palmer is doing better than most of us thought he would and he will only get better by playing regularly at Chelsea as he''s starting to express himself as his confidence grows. I'd have liked to have kept him but with the money we received was good business for a raw 21 year old with only a handful of games played. We were happy to sell and Cole was happy to sign for Chelsea so we hardly dropped a clanger. I wish him well and hope he has a good career, just a bit sad it won't be with us though.

 

[SWP's back]

I must say watching Cole on Sunday, I could see a resemblance to KDB in patches, although the game was very open, which obviously makes him stand out a bit more.

He was bang average by City standards and only received headlines as he scored an equalising penalty in injury time.

Doku has put in several performance of much higher quality.

 

[Otamendi's Beard]

I've always rated him highly so thought he'd do well. But he's in the honeymoon period at the minute and hasn't been competing with anybody of note for minutes.

He might end up being incredible (he has the talent) or he may end up being injury prone or whatever else.

Either way, we made decent money and brought in Doku. You can't have everything.

 

[youngbob]

He was bang average by City standards and only received headlines as he scored an equalising penalty in injury time.

Doku has put in several performance of much higher quality.

He's got to put those penalties in, to be fair to him, but agreed that all I've really noticed Palmer doing for Chelsea so far is pirouetting on the edge of the box and passing it to the nearest player who's immediately behind him. His performances against tight defences and deep blocks - the type of defences City come up against more than any other - have been bang average. Had no impact as a sub against Forest, Bournemouth, or Villa, and had no real impact as a starter against Brentford. He's done well in games where there's space to play but how often do we get that at City?

 

[SWP's back]

He's got to put those penalties in, to be fair to him, but agreed that all I've really noticed Palmer doing for Chelsea so far is pirouetting on the edge of the box and passing it to the nearest player who's immediately behind him. His performances against tight defences and deep blocks - the type of defences City come up against more than any other - have been bang average. Had no impact as a sub against Forest, Bournemouth, or Villa, and had no real impact as a starter against Brentford. He's done well in games where there's space to play but how often do we get that at City?

Maybe twice a year in the Champions League yeah. He's done nothing so far that makes me sad he’s left.

We must remember we had the exact same threads this time last season about Jesus and Zinchenko. Weirdly they’ve died off now.

 

[youngbob]

Maybe twice a year in the Champions League yeah. He's done nothing so far that makes me sad he’s left.

We must remember we had the exact same threads this time last season about Jesus and Zinchenko. Weirdly they’ve died off now.

Arsenal fans have turned on Zinchenko a bit, which is a shame. I do still wish we'd kept him and Jesus because I loved them but it was definitely more of a sentimentality thing. I do think Zinchenko would be making a rather nice partner for Rodri right now because he was comfortable coming inside, and he would have probably saved us needing to buy Phillips, but he wouldn't have got the minutes he wanted because he wasn't quite at the level required.

I think something Palmer said this week has been a bit revealing as well - he's admitted to seeing who we were bringing in and realising he wasn't going to play as often so he left. Now, players often need to step down to reach their potential before moving back up again. De Bruyne did a similar thing at Chelsea. But specifically as it pertains to Palmer, it's clear he'd reached his ceiling with us - we knew it, Pep knew it, and so did Cole.

He'll probably have a good career for Chelsea. He'll no doubt win a small handful of trophies and score 50-odd goals for them. But I don't think we'll ever be in a position where we look back and say "We never replaced him" because, while he might score the odd goal against City in the future, we'll never see him as the one that got away. He started 13 games for us in about three years. You don't tend to miss players like that, high as their potential is.

He wouldn't have got anywhere with us long-term so it was a smart decision for him to leave, but what's required at Chelsea is nowhere near what's required for us. Chelsea will consider top six a successful season this year and when push comes to shove they won't have enough. Next year they'll be pushing for the league and trying to get a Europa League run together - it'll be best to see what Palmer's made of when the pressure on him is sustained.

Time will tell whether Palmer's another Januzaj or something genuinely special. Because while United were under Moyes and he had all the freedom on the pitch to do whatever he liked, Januzaj was wicked. But then when Van Gaal came in and got serious and tactical as they were pushing for the Champions League and trying to win trophies, Januzaj dropped like a stone because he wasn't someone who could operate outside of a free role.

I don't think Palmer will ever end up where Januzaj did, where he was only good enough for an upper mid-table side in Spain and is now plying his trade in Turkey at the age of 28. I think Palmer's better than that. But when we look back on Palmer's career in a decade or so, we'll probably be looking at someone who was a nearly man. Good enough for a team on the fringes of the elite but not quite the complete package.

 

[Sir peace frog]

the question could be, has palmer dropped a clanger leaving city too soon, he wasn't left out of the team because pep didn't like him, he didnt get the game time because pep watched him in training everyday and he obviously prefer different players more often than not, every "old player" ups their game against their old club, we saw than with cole, good luck to the lad,i hope he has a decent but not successful career, imo doku looks twice the player at the moment.

 

[Gabriel]

Palmer is doing better than most of us thought he would and he will only get better by playing regularly at Chelsea as he''s starting to express himself as his confidence grows. I'd have liked to have kept him but with the money we received was good business for a raw 21 year old with only a handful of games played. We were happy to sell and Cole was happy to sign for Chelsea so we hardly dropped a clanger. I wish him well and hope he has a good career, just a bit sad it won't be with us though.

Tend to agree with everything you say, though I do wonder what his value will be at the end of this season if he remains on this trajectory. Might we have sold too cheaply? After all, the money we received is largely the same as we spent each on Phillips and Nunes, respectively, neither of whom, by comparison, has managed to set the heather on fire. I'm not sure they've even found the matches...

 

[mattcity5]

I liked Cole. Think he could have been a good Mahrez replacement in style and, after a while, effectiveness even.

However, if keeping him would have pushed Oscar Bobb further back in the queue, I'm all for Cole leaving. I think Cole could become a very good player, but if Bobb gets brought through right by Pep, he could be exceptional.

 

[BlueMoonRisin’]

Tend to agree with everything you say, though I do wonder what his value will be at the end of this season if he remains on this trajectory. Might we have sold too cheaply? After all, the money we received is largely the same as we spent each on Phillips and Nunes, respectively, neither of whom, by comparison, has managed to set the heather on fire. I'm not sure they've even found the matches...

It's difficult to say how much he'll be worth at the end of the season but if he carries on progressing as he is he'll be worth considerably more than 42M we received. But let's not forget that we got top money for such an inexperienced player who cost us nothing.

I think last season was supposed to be his breakout season and the limited minutes he played he didn't impress enough and make a mark. I think Cole's demeanor was far too relaxed and he looked tactically unaware and too indecisive. If we'd have kept him another season playing the same as last season than i very much doubt we'd have got 20M for him, so Chelsea coming in for him and paying what they did was a big gamble for them which (thus far) looks to be paying off. It's hard to say just how good he will become though. Time will tell...