Cole Palmer

[domalino]

What were we supposed to do?

Well ideally our array of world class coaches would identify a potentially world class player and make it clear to them that they're the future of the club so he doesn't feel like he has to leave. Or I don't know, choose to play him over Matheus Nunes? Give him more games than Sergio Gomez?

The bottom line is that City have lost one of the best players in the country because Pep & co. couldn't convince him that he'd get his chance to show how good he is if he stayed. You want to absolve City from all responsibility from that and pretend the player had unreasonable demands or was a coward because it's easier than admitting the club could have done more to keep him and are currently learning a very expensive lesson.

 

[kaz7]

And we should be reminded that Kaz 7 simply repeats Mantra, obeys orders and would easily be mistaken for an employee of the club.
Oops!

Weirdo

 

[Damanino]

I think if a the time Pep-Txiki says, listen Mahrez leaving, we dont sign a replacement but you and Bobb will have lots of minutes on the wing, he might accept that. what we wanted probably is go ahead with Doku and keep Palmer to pick up minutes behind Doku as we certainly not sign Doku for 55m and use him behind the hierarchy of Palmer. bit of exciting shiny new toy is ahead of home grown youngster case, but turned out to be quite poor for us as Palmer's numbers in G+A is just immense at Chelsea.


probably ot the best comparison but if someone offers me a bet who will do higher G+A numbers over the PL season, Palmer alone or Grealish, Doku, Savio, Bobb all together, its a hard pick despite 4 vs 1. so far it is 3 assists between Grealish, Savio, Doku vs 6 goals and 4 assists from Palmer. already an uphill battle while Bobb imo who can be our most productive winger is out injured unfortunately, and that another skill of Palmer rarely injured.

 

[Crooked_rain]

Well ideally our array of world class coaches would identify a potentially world class player and make it clear to them that they're the future of the club so he doesn't feel like he has to leave. Or I don't know, choose to play him over Matheus Nunes? Give him more games than Sergio Gomez?

Well we won a treble the season before he left, so it's not like the team selection was lacking..

Why would he play over Nunes, were they even here at the same time? Do they even play the same position?

Either way, Nunes wasn't picked over him, they weren't here together.

If Palmer backed himself at City, he might well be playing games for us right now, ahead of Nunes or any other fantasy player that wasn't even there at the same time.

 

[Stiff Little Wingers]

I can't stand how often this shit gets repeated, as if the 18 year olds are making the decision in a vaccuum.

If you as a club go out and spend £100m on players in a kids position, you are sending them a very clear message, you're not in our plans.

When you as a manager don't pick a kid who's supposedly in the first team for 3-4 months at a time, you're sending them a very clear message.

Palmer stuck with City for 2 full seasons as "part of the first team", he couldn't have done more to back himself and fight for a place. Eventually City sent him enough clear messages that they didn't rate him that he felt he had to leave, he did leave, and within a year he's shown he's one of the best players in the country and clubs would snap Chelsea's hand off to pay 2x what they did.


The attempts to re-frame every single player who leaves as being some sort of coward because they didn't back themselves is 1) bollocks, 2) desperate and 3) belongs on RAWK.

The problem is that City extended Mahrez’s contract which clearly blocked Cole’s opportunities the season before last, otherwise he could have been the next cab off the block. I’m surprised he hasn’t had more games than he did for us.
But at the end of the day he took a move and has done tremendously well and I’m very pleased for him as he’s always had something special about him.
As for a step down - you’re having a laugh. He’s king of West London in a young and potentially exciting team - good luck to him. Only 15 or so players can win the PL every season.
As for us

 

[Crooked_rain]

Why didnt Savio have to earn his spot? He barely had a pre-season, didn't speak much English and had barely trained with the first team but still started the opening league game against Chelsea. What about Doku last season? He started 18 league games, Bobb only started 2. Personally I think Bobb is a better player than Doku but because he's an academy graduate he's got to sit on the bench for a couple of years and get most of his minutes when we're 3-0 up.

Bobb obviously showed potential last season and was seemingly going to be part of Pep's plans this season until the injury. Palmer probably would've done the same.

Signings had been playing much more at other clubs, so they probably have a touch more experience, so they're probably seen as ready to go, that's why we sign them isn't it?

You can't compare the things. You can't compare someome who has just had a full season in La Liga to a player transitioning from the academy to being a Premier League player. The latter is obviously going to be handled with a bit more care.

Didn't do a bad job with Phil did we? Palmer just wanted to play much more football right now which is absolutely fine. We couldn't guarantee him that and nor should we with any player. He was offered a chance to stay and work his way in to the team, he chose not to take it.

 

[domalino]

Well we won a treble the season before he left, so it's not like the team selection was lacking..

You’re literally just repeating what Chelsea fans said. “Yeah we picked Oscar over KdB but we won the league that year so it was a good decision”

 

[roy.or.r]

He's coming up 23, he's not 18.


He chose to leave. I don't see why people think it was a mistake. What were we supposed to do? Guarantee him a place to satisfy? No player should be guaranteed a starting positioning, whether you're De Bruyne or an academy product. Earn your spot. We provided him with the option to do that and he chose not to stay and break into the team.

Well people blame Mourinho for selling KDB and Salah which were both very bad decisions. Do you blame Mourinho or not?

 

[Barcon]

That's not exactly the real story.

He wanted to go on loan to gain playing time and Pep said: either you stay or you go, but under no circumstances are we going to loan you . He spoke about it on several occasions with a lot of sadness.

We shouldn't be afraid to say that Pep totally screwed up on this one.

And he chose to go. If he didn't want to go he would have chose the stay option that was offered to him.

 

[ViKDB]

Bobb obviously showed potential last season and was seemingly going to be part of Pep's plans this season until the injury. Palmer probably would've done the same.

Signings had been playing much more at other clubs, so they probably have a touch more experience, so they're probably seen as ready to go, that's why we sign them isn't it?

You can't compare the things. You can't compare someome who has just had a full season in La Liga to a player transitioning from the academy to being a Premier League player. The latter is obviously going to be handled with a bit more care.

Didn't do a bad job with Phil did we? Palmer just wanted to play much more football right now which is absolutely fine. We couldn't guarantee him that and nor should we with any player. He was offered a chance to stay and work his way in to the team, he chose not to take it.

Scoring in two finals and then playing 0 minutes in the next two league games (including team like Sheffield Utd) is not 'offered a chance to stay'. The club did not handle this matter perfectly, but it is not something unacceptable.