Manchester City reluctantly sold Cole Palmer to Chelsea for £42.5million last September and the 21-year-old will face his ex-team-mates in their FA Cup semi-final tie on Saturday
Pep Guardiola claims Cole Palmer begged to leave Manchester City, giving the Premier League champions no option but to sell their “exceptional” academy product.
Palmer, 21, joined rivals Chelsea in a £42.5million transfer deal back in September and despite the Blues enduring a difficult season, he’s been revelation. The attacking midfielder has racked up 23 goals and 13 assists across 38 games for Mauricio Pochettino’s side, who return to Wembley for the second time in two months for an FA Cup semi-final clash with City on Saturday.
After sensationally netting four goals in Chelsea’s 6-0 win at home to Everton earlier this week, there’s plenty of expectation on Palmer to deliver the goods once again, and Guardiola won’t be surprised if the England international proves to be the difference.
“He’s an exceptional player. We knew this when he was here,” the City boss recalled. “He’s a nice guy, a shy guy, with a lot of confidence, and he’s playing fantastically well.”
So, why sell?
“He was asking for two seasons to leave,” Guardiola explained. “I said, ‘no, stay’. But he still said, ‘No, I want to leave’. What can I say?
“Cole is the decisive player of the season. Playing that level is exceptional. But we travel to Wembley looking to win this game, and see what happens.”
Guardiola’s Treble winners have been left licking their wounds following their Champions League defeat to Real Madrid on penalties in midweek. To make matters worse, the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager has doubts over the fitness of key duo Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland.
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But Guardiola knows that there’s no time to sulk about being dumped out of Europe, admitting that City have no choice but to bounce back. “It is what it is, but I prefer to play this game than stay at home and think of the next Premier League game,” he went on to say.
“It’s better to be here, in this the situation. There’s no time, we go there and try to compete and do our best. Don’t feel sorry that we’re out (of Europe). Sometimes you lose games. We don’t have an option, we don’t want to feel bad for ourselves.
“We don’t have time to reflect, we’ll do that in the summer time. You compete to win, but sometimes you lose games, and that’s what happened.”
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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.
