Manchester City have reportedly turned down an offer for Cole Palmer.
Earlier this month, the winger said that his ambition for this season is to play regular senior football, either at City or another club.
Following that, Pep Guardiola said that he doesn’t know whether the 21-year-old will be at the Manchester club by the time the summer transfer window closes this Friday.
Now though, a big development has emerged regarding this particular transfer story.
City reject Chelsea bid for Palmer
In a recent Twitter post, journalist Jacob Steinberg had this to say on the matter.
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He said: “Chelsea have had a £35m bid for Cole Palmer rejected by Manchester City.”
It has since been reported by journalist Nizaar Kinsella that City asked for £50m but could settle for around £45m.
After working his way through the youth ranks at City, the attacker made his senior debut for the club back in September 2020 during a 3-0 win over Burnley in the Carabao Cup.
Since then, Palmer has made 41 senior appearances for Pep Guardiola’s side across all competitions, scoring six goals and delivering two assists.
Two of those goals have come in this current campaign, the first being against Arsenal in the Community Shield and the other coming against Sevilla in the Super Cup.
However, having been an unused substitute for City’s two previous Premier League games against Newcastle United and Sheffield United, this suggests that the Englishman may not be a regular starter for the Citizens this season.
Despite that, the fact that City have rejected an opening bid from Chelsea worth £35m shows that they either don’t want to sell him or that they value him at a much higher fee than what the west London club have put forward, which has now been suggested elsewhere.
Looking ahead to the next couple of days before the transfer window shuts, it’ll be intriguing to see whether or not Chelsea make another effort to sign Palmer by offering a bigger fee to City and if the treble winners could be persuaded into cashing in on the youngster.