Cole Palmer says he is “gutted” that Mauricio Pochettino left Chelsea but revealed that his replacement as head coach, Enzo Maresca, is the one who converted the England international into being a right-winger.
The 22-year-old added that he owed his place in the England squad for the European Championship to Pochettino after an outstanding first season at Chelsea following his £42 million move from Manchester City.
“He just gave me the opportunity and the freedom and said ‘do what you do’,” Palmer says before explaining that he was sorry to see Pochettino leave.
“I was [sorry], because he put his trust in me and we built a good relationship. Not just with him but with all his staff who were there. When he left I was gutted.
“He is probably the main reason [I am in the England squad] because a different manager might not have given me that freedom and opportunity to do what I did at Chelsea.”
Nevertheless Palmer welcomed the appointment of Maresca, having previously worked with him at City. “Enzo was the one who put me at right-wing,” Palmer says. “So from the [under] 18s I was playing [number] 10 and when I went to the 23s Enzo played me on the right. That was my first full season on the right. He’s a good coach, a really good coach. I think tactically he knows what he is doing. He will improve a lot of the players.”
Palmer admits that his first campaign at Chelsea – with 27 goals and 15 assists – went “a lot better than expected”, earning him his England call-up and now a clamour for him to start the last-16 tie against Slovakia on Sunday after an impressive cameo versus Slovenia. “Obviously I believed what I could do anyway, but I didn’t think I would go there and have that sort of impact that fast,” Palmer says of Chelsea.
Palmer’s views on Pochettino are the most candid revelations of a player who had suddenly been thrust into the limelight and he offers an insight into the other key stages of his career so far:
Starting as a left-back
There was a moment during Palmer’s briefing with reporters at England’s media centre when he fears he might have said the wrong thing. “No, my first position was left-back,” he reveals when asked about whether he had always been a forward player.
“I am talking under-10s! Under-10s,” Palmer adds, conscious that – of course – England have a problem in that position with Luke Shaw working his way back to fitness, no natural understudy and Kieran Trippier not fully fit. “I didn’t say that [I could play there],” Palmer adds. “Under-10 I was left-back. I have never played left-back since!”
Palmer was very slight as a child – and was almost released by Manchester City’s academy aged 16 because of his physique. “I was tiny and I just got put left-back. Then when I was 12 I moved further and further up,” says Palmer, who eventually first became a striker then a left-footed right-winger.
Going to the Brazil World Cup
Palmer has two very distinct memories of watching England or, rather one of them being not watching England, as a child. His first? “The one when [Frank] Lampard hit the bar. That’s the only thing I remember about that tournament,” he says of South Africa and the 2010 World Cup.
Palmer was eight and Lampard’s shot against Germany in the last-16 tie in Bloemfontein cannoned back off the crossbar before bouncing over the goal-line. Except there was no goal-line technology – the ‘ghost goal’ helped usher it in – and it was not given as England went on to lose 4-1 and were knocked out.
“Then I went to Brazil for the World Cup – my grandad lives in Brazil,” Palmer explains of 2014.
Did his grandfather go to any England games?
“Not the England ones, by the time I got there they’d already been knocked out!” he says of that even more disastrous campaign when Roy Hodgson’s side were eliminated after two group matches.
“It [the World Cup] was great. I went to watch Belgium versus Russia. I think it was the Maracana [Stadium]. My [maternal] grandad Gary lived in Rio,” Palmer says. “He just moved over there. He didn’t like the weather in England, so he moved to Brazil. Now he speaks fluent Portuguese.”
Olivia Martin is a dedicated sports journalist based in the UK. With a passion for various athletic disciplines, she covers everything from major league championships to local sports events, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis.
