It has been reported that Cole Palmer could now end up staying at Manchester City next season.
This comes from The Athletic journalist Sam Lee, after it was claimed in June that the plan at City was to send the youngster on loan amid links to RB Leipzig.
But it seems Manchester City may have internally decided to keep Cole Palmer within their ranks.
Manchester City aim to keep Cole Palmer instead of sending him on loan
Branded as ‘unbelievable’ by Paul Dickov via the club’s official website, the 21-year-old is easily the most logical replacement at the club for Riyad Mahrez, who joined Al-Ahli recently.
Apart from the Englishman, the treble-winners simply do not have a natural right-winger in the first-team to succeed the Algerian legend.
As a result, it has been revealed that Cole Palmer could be set to stay at Manchester City in the following campaign.
Earlier, it has been claimed that the plan was for the highly-rated forward to go out on loan, with clubs in Germany and Brighton interested in nurturing his talent.
But as reported on Tuesday, Juanma Lillo looks likely to return to the Etihad Stadium and considering he has a ‘really good relationship’ with Palmer, this could lead to him fulfilling his potential and emerging as a genuine option for City on the right flank.
Keeping Palmer would be the right call
While there is this idea that Cole Palmer underperformed for Manchester City last season, the reality is that he barely played in his natural position as a right-winger.
In fact, mostly when Palmer was brought on late into a game, it was to operate on the left flank and in most of his rare starts, he was either deployed in the same role or as a right-sided attacking midfielder.
Next season, if the academy graduate is given a fixed role on the right-wing and is given semi-regular opportunities at least, there is nothing stopping him from emerging as a long-term replacement for Mahrez.
