I think that Palmer’s city career was inadvertently ended by the treble. At the end of that season when the league was won and we were resting players for the two finals, he started games, and he was poor, particularly at Brentford. We then won the treble and all the focus understandably was on that and the key players that had achieved it. It got a bit overlooked that early the following season he scored in both the Charity Shield and the Super Cup, and his departure was mostly met with a bit of a shrug and view that it was a good fee. It seems clear now he was ready to step up, but maybe we didn’t really notice.
Not sure how anyone could have noticed he was ready to step up based on anything he'd done at City, to be honest. You had a few fans arguing to keep him but the overwhelming majority saw Palmer to Chelsea as good business. Anyone who tries to pretend they felt otherwise in 2023 (apart from a pretty small minority) is having you on.
And that's because, at the time, it
was good business.
Very little of what Palmer did in a City shirt justified him potentially taking minutes away from Bernardo, Foden, De Bruyne, and Grealish at the time, especially after the treble-winning season. And sadly for Palmer that's how Pep saw it too. For one reason or another, he unfortunately didn't nail down a position or kick on as expected.
He started 13 matches (of 41 total apps) across three seasons under Pep and managed a grand total of six goals in that time. He was moved around the pitch - from left to right, up front, midfield - and other than showing a couple of nice touches never really looked like he was going to reach the heights with City that Foden had.
Then Chelsea came knocking with £45m. City don't usually like sending lads out on loan because, like Foden did, Pep would rather they were here learning how to improve their game while training with the best. So then Palmer had to make the choice: stay and fight for a part in Pep's system, or take a step down to play more often.
He chose the latter and it's worked out really well for him.
I don't know why City get it in the neck from our own fans over this. While here, Palmer hadn't shown any sign of reaching the heights he's reached at Chelsea. He's only been able to develop so much so quickly because he's playing for a team where everything runs through him and all of his teammates look to him like we do De Bruyne.
Palmer's succeeding so much at Chelsea because he's got a role that was literally impossible for him to have at City when he made he decision to leave. Pep was never going to willingly move De Bruyne out of the team so that a 20-year-old with 13 professional starts could play week in week out. That just wasn't going to happen.
And that's without getting into the fact that the defenses Palmer faces as a Chelsea player are completely different to what he'd face at City. It's a fact that the opposition sits deeper against City, puts more men behind the ball against City, and provides less and less space for City's attackers compared to whenever they play Chelsea.
As has been said a million times in this thread, Palmer had potential but he wasn't in a position to reach it at City. Pep told him he could either stay and fight or go elsewhere. Palmer took a big risk in leaving but it's paid off for him. That doesn't suggest for even a second that Palmer would currently be slamming in goals for us.
By the point he left, Palmer had shown about as much potential as Eric Garcia, or Brahim Diaz, or Aleix Garcia, or even Jadon Sancho, to be honest. Every youngster progresses differently, but it was entirely reasonable of City to think £45m for a youth player of that quality (roughly) was a good fee and a solid bit of business.
