Chelsea superstar Cole Palmer took the brave decision to leave Manchester City last summer — becoming one of the few players to leave Pep Guardiola’s sight and continue to thrive at another club.
The likes of Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling and Ferran Torres to name a few found out the hard way that leaving Guardiola’s Manchester City side is a risk that is mostly not worth taking — failing to elevate their respective careers since then.
Upon his return to the Etihad Stadium this summer, Ilkay Gundogan admitted that once one leaves City, it is easy to realise the stature and the standard of the club.
“When you leave this place like I did last year, you spend a year away, you then start to appreciate the place even more. You realise what you had. You realise how amazing that time was.
“You realise how big the club is — the best club in the world.”
However, Cole Palmer has every reason to be delighted with life at Chelsea — being a part of a side that is showing major signs of improvement under Enzo Maresca’s guidance while being the poster-boy of the club.
Cole Palmer reveals it was “annoying” not to play regular Premier League football at Man City
Palmer revealed the goodbye message he sent to Manchester City via their group chat was a brief one due to the fact that his move to Stamford Bridge had been agreed.
Tony Cascarino claimed Manchester City sold Palmer prematurely, adding that “the timing was wrong” in July this year.
Speaking to British GQ, Palmer has admitted that he used to find it frustrating how English youngsters at other clubs would get regular minutes in the Premier League unlike him at City.
The Chelsea talisman revealed: “I just knew I wasn’t going to play as much as I wanted to. Even when I was going to England [camps] with younger age groups, you had players there who were playing in the league every week.”
“And you’re looking around thinking, I can play in the league.”
“When you’re not playing, it’s annoying.”
Pep Guardiola revealed Palmer insisted on exiting Manchester City despite being told he was going to play more regular first-team football.
However, Palmer told Sky Sports that his intention was to head out on loan and stay at City.
How many Premier League games did Palmer play for Man City?
The Englishman was seemingly being gradually integrated into senior football by Pep Guardiola.
Much like in Phil Foden’s case, it seemed like the Manchester City boss had no intention to throw the youngster into the side prematurely.
Furthermore, City had top-class attacking midfielders like Foden and Kevin De Bruyne as well as right-wingers like Riyad Mahrez and Bernardo Silva at their disposal — making it difficult for him to start.
Here are the Premier League games Palmer played during his spell as a first-team player at Manchester City.
| PALMER PREMIER LEAGUE GAMES FOR MAN CITY | ||
| SEASON | STARTS | TOTAL APPEARANCES |
| 2021/2022 | 1 | 3 |
| 2022/2023 | 2 | 12 |
Starting a mere three games for the Sky Blues, the Wythenshawe-born midfielder was a mere fringe player.
If Palmer had stayed at his boyhood club, it would have been interesting to see how regularly he would have featured in the league.
