A report has claimed that not many people behind the scenes at Manchester City were expecting to see Cole Palmer leave the club this summer.
Earlier today, it was revealed that the winger had sealed a £42.5m move to Chelsea, after seeing an initial bid of £35m rejected.
This departure has now led to some behind-the-scenes details coming to light about what the feeling was towards Palmer at the start of the summer window.
City didn’t expect Palmer to leave
A recent report from The Athletic had this to say on the matter.
“Few inside Manchester City would have imagined at the start of the summer that Palmer would be among those sold; The Athletic reported in June that the club were open to a loan move that would give him more exposure to first-team football, but that they were not interested in a sale.
“That changed as the summer progressed and Palmer began to make clear his desire for a move. Gradually, Manchester City warmed to the idea, not least because selling homegrown players has become so helpful in clubs’ efforts to comply with Premier League and UEFA financial regulations.”
Last season saw the Englishman feature in 25 games for Pep Guardiola’s side across all competitions, starting seven of them.
Despite his growing prominence in the side, the fact that he was an unused substitute for City’s two previous Premier League games could have been a sign for him that he may not be getting the minutes he was aiming to get this season.
With that in mind, if he feels that he’s more likely to play more often at Chelsea, it’s understandable why the treble winners worked out a deal to sell him for such a significant fee despite his small amount of top-flight experience.
Moving forward, while people behind the scenes at City may not have been expecting to see Palmer wave goodbye to his boyhood club this summer, the move has now happened, and it’ll be safe to assume that everyone connected to City will be hoping he can be successful in the next step of his career.
