Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola begged Cole Palmer to stay at the Champions before he moved to Chelsea.
Palmer, 21, has been strutting his stuff for the Blues after making his move in the summer. He was on electric form on Monday (April 15) evening, netting four goals against a hapless Everton side at Stamford Bridge.
The youngster is now tied at the top of the top goalscorer rankings with City’s superstar Erling Haaland, despite being an attacking midfielder and not a forward. When asked if he regretted letting Palmer leave, Guardiola laughed and replied: “No, he’s an exceptional player. We knew this when he was here.
I’m happy for him he’s a lovely guy, a shy guy, he has incredible potential, so why should it not be here? It is what it is. He’s playing good, he’s an incredible threat, he’s playing fantastically, so what can I say? The decision has been made for many reasons.
“He was asking for two seasons to leave. During two seasons, to leave, to leave. I said ‘no, stay, stay’. At the end, ‘no, I want to leave’. What can we do? I said in the pre-season, ‘stay because Riyad [Mahrez] has gone’. He said ‘no, I want to leave’. So after two seasons, what can I say?
“So, go, and there… playing that level is exceptional. Everybody knows it.”
Palmer switched City for Chelsea to the tune of an initial £40million, potentially rising to £42.5m with add-ons. In the Premier League, so far, Palmer has netted 20 goals.
However, Palmer’s form hasn’t been replicated by his team-mates, and Chelsea have been stuck in mid-table mediocrity for most of the season, currently lying in ninth place.
City, on the other hand, are currently in a title race with Liverpool and Arsenal. Both sides will be turning their attention to the cup, when they clash on Saturday in the semi-finals of the FA Cup.
Guardiola’s side will be looking for a return to form after they were knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid on penalties on Wednesday evening. To make matters worse, Guardiola has doubts over the fitness of key duo Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland.
But Guardiola knows there is no time to sulk about being dumped out of Europe, and admits City have no choice but to bounce back. He said: “It is what it is, but I prefer to play this game than stay at home and think of the next Premier League game.
“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.”
Guardiola, meanwhile, has thrown his backing behind Bernardo Silva in the wake of his shocking spot kick miss in the defeat to Real. Silva has come under-fire after chipping his penalty straight into the hands of Real goalkeeper Andriy Lunin.
But Guardiola insists the Portuguese midfielder has the strength of character to emerge stronger from the blunder. The Spaniard added: “He’s trained good and he’s ready. The guys who take the penalties are heroes, because not everyone can do it.
“He didn’t want to miss it. Be he showed responsibility in front of everyone. I would never judge him, completely the opposite. Big respect.”
