Palmer explains brutal Guardiola chat before City exit - 'I didn't want to go'

12 January 2024 , 20:52

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Manchester City sold Cole Palmer to Chelsea for £42.5m (Image: Harriet Lander - Chelsea FC/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)

Chelsea star Cole Palmer has opened up about his move to Stamford Bridge, revealing he never actually wanted to leave Manchester City in the first place.

Palmer came through City's academy, having joined the club at under-8s level, and went on to score six goals across 41 first-team appearances. The 21-year-old also scored for City in the Community Shield and UEFA Super Cup at the start of the season, before surprisingly joining Chelsea less than a month later.

The Blues forked out £42.5m for Palmer, who says he initially wanted to go out on loan this season before City boss Pep Guardiola gave him an ultimatum. When asked if he was surprised City were willing to sell him to Chelsea, Palmer told the Daily Mail: "Yeah.

"Initially I didn't want to leave. I said I would go on loan and play for a year so I was ready for first team football more because I didn't play a lot of minutes [last season]. But then Pep said 'you're either staying or you're getting sold' and, so yeah, I just got sold.

"I was a bit confused why they wouldn't let me go on loan but [then] I said I wanted to go to Chelsea and I'm glad it's turned out the way it has." And Palmer readily admits Chelsea are a work in progress when compared to City, who have won the league five times in the last six years and completed a historic Treble last season.

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However, he is enjoying the added "responsibility" he has been given at Chelsea as one of their key players under Mauricio Pochettino. "Everyone quite clearly can see the two clubs are in different stages," Palmer added.

"One is a project and one has established players. Our project is a young project. There are a lot of young players and I thought I would fit the project well. I didn't know what the personalities were like before I came so they could have many people that liked it [having responsibility] but I would have thought I've definitely got more responsibility than I got at Man City."

Palmer has been Chelsea's main man so far this season (AP)

Palmer is currently Chelsea's top scorer, having found the back of the net eight times in 16 league games, and Pochettino has likened him to former Real Madrid star Angel di Maria. "In the position that he plays, and because he's a left-footer and because he has some similarities and the quality, he's a potential Angel Di Maria," Pochettino told TNT Sports last month.

"Angel is a world champion, he was in Paris [Saint-Germain] with us, and is an amazing player. He [Palmer] has the capacity and the potential to be close to him, with time. He's still far away, but this type of player that can link, can be a playmaker, have the capacity to score, assist, it's this type of player like Angel.

"But of course he's performing really well from day one. He's adapted very well to the club, to the team-mates, to Chelsea life, and yes it's amazing, because always you expect the player can perform well, but he's doing excellent."

Matthew Cooper