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Former Chelsea player Pat Nevin believes Cole Palmer could well be the “new Kevin De Bruyne”.
Speaking to sports betting site BetVictor, Nevin said he recognised the player’s potential almost instantly after seeing him making his senior debut for Manchester City:
“When Cole Palmer first broke through at Manchester City he came on as a sub and after just three or four touches I said, ‘I think I’ve seen the new Kevin De Bruyne’, which shocked a lot of people, In terms of comparing him to former Chelsea players, I think De Bruyne comes closest. He’s not a winger, he’s more of a wide attacker or a number 10. People throw in names like Eden Hazard and Frank Lampard but he’s not like either of those two, he’s just Cole Palmer.”
“When you think about players in their first season at a club, not many have been better than him. Especially when you consider the fact that Chelsea only paid £40 million for him; it’s the best piece of business they’ve done by a country mile.”
Fans still lament the fact that City let Palmer go
You can’t deny that the Premier League champions made a mistake by selling the 22-year-old last year. Hindsight is 20/20 but it was obvious that Palmer was going to be a star.
Supporters probably didn’t expect him to play to the level he has shown at Chelsea over the last 14 months, but there were plenty who questioned the wisdom of offloading him for £40m at the time.
Guardiola didn’t want to hold the player back
What some don’t always appreciate, though, is Pep Guardiola‘s stance on selling Palmer. There is no doubt that the 53-year-old wanted him to stay at the Etihad.
However, he could see how much Palmer wanted to play on a regular basis and keeping an unhappy player is not in Guardiola’s nature. We have seen it in the past with others (such as Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus) who have been allowed to leave.
It must be said that City haven’t come to regret the vast majority of those sales, but the Palmer deal has definitely come back to bite them.
Find out who is in Manchester City’s first-team squad for the 2024/2025 season here
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