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There are two sides to Cole Palmer. There is the shy character who can fool you into thinking he has nothing much to say for himself. On the other hand there’s the artist with the ball at his feet. The player with the “Ice Cold” celebration copied by kids in playgrounds everywhere. The improviser who makes the price of a ticket worthwhile.
“I know what you’re saying,” Palmer replies as, on a sunny afternoon at Chelsea’s training ground, we talk about the contrast between his shy conversational style and his ability to make an impact on people when he steps on the pitch. “I don’t really say too much in general but when I’m on a pitch I try to. I feel like it’s two different personalities. Off the pitch it’s quiet. I find it hard to speak to new people. But when I’m on the pitch I feel it just comes freely.”
Chelsea’s No 10 takes a while to open up during our chat. Football is his chosen language. The boy from Wythenshawe admits that he is guarded with new people. Questions about whether the boy from Wythenshawe visualises moves and tried to copy his heroes when he was younger fall flat.
By the end, though, the 23-year-old has warmed up and is nattering away. He is laughing about last summer’s chaotic win against Benfica at the Club World Cup (the game lasted four hours after a delay due to stormy weather in North Carolina) and delivering an update on his views on southern people. He has gone into detail about his injury woes and it feels significant that he has agreed to meet. It is easy to talk during a winning run. It shows character to do it when the world is on your back.
This has been the toughest season of Palmer’s career and it has been a tricky few weeks for Chelsea. Enzo Fernández and Marc Cucurella have questioned the club’s project. There is a fan protest scheduled before Saturday’s game against Manchester United. There is also constant speculation swirling around Palmer, who has repeatedly been linked with a summer move to United, the club he supported as a boy.
But Palmer is here and he is committed. He is by far the biggest name at Chelsea and, having worn the captain’s armband for the first time during the recent FA Cup quarter-final win against Port Vale, he wants to set the record straight on his future.
“You’ve got different [kinds of] captains,” Palmer says. “You’ve got ones who shout and encourage and you’ve got ones that try to lead by example. And I think from what I’ve done since I arrived here, with the amount of goals I’ve scored and assists I’ve done in certain moments, I feel like I can try and set an example with the way I play.”
Palmer is 6ft 1in now but his youth coaches remember a small kid who refused to be intimidated during games. “That’s just the way I play,” he says. “I always want the ball. If you lose the ball, then get on it again and don’t lose it the next time. You can’t hide. You’ve just got to try and enjoy it.”
Palmer smiles when I suggest he never looks nervous on the pitch. “Everyone says that to me. Obviously everyone gets nervous.” The last time he really felt the butterflies, though, was before he made his England debut in November 2023. “I just think it’s just a game,” he says. “It’s not that deep. That’s how I’ve been brought up – to just play and don’t think too much. There’s bigger things than football. Obviously, you get upset and obviously it’s a very emotional game. But when you miss a chance you just shrug it off. It’s happened. You can’t change it.”
What has to change is Chelsea’s form. Knocked out of the Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain last month, they are sixth in the league and there is growing pressure on Liam Rosenior, who was appointed as head coach after Enzo Maresca’s shock departure on New Year’s Day.
“It has been an inconsistent season for whatever reason,” Palmer says. “It’s just about, in my opinion, getting the right players in to help us kick on.”
Chelsea will tweak their model this summer. They have focused heavily on youth under the ownership of Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly but there is a recognition of the need for more readymade talent. Palmer is confident. He and Chelsea’s captain Reece James, who recently signed a new long-term deal, have had constructive discussions with the owners and five sporting directors about summer targets. Moisés Caicedo is also extending his contract to 2033.
“It’s something we’re working on together,” Palmer says. “We’re on the same page. We want to win now and I think if we add right in the summer we can compete for serious trophies next season. I don’t think we’re far off. If you sign the right players in the right positions and the right characters and profiles, I think we have more than enough quality to compete and be more consistent than we’ve shown over this season.
“Bringing a manager in mid-season, you have no pre-season, hardly have time to train. You’re just focusing on games. But the manager is good and when he has a proper pre-season and gets his ideas across properly and the way he wants to play he’s a top coach. If we as players perform to how we should be performing and we get the right players we can, him and us as a group, do some work.”
Palmer shrugs off the stories about him pining for life in the north-west and a move to United. “Everyone just talks,” he says. “When I see it I just laugh. Obviously Manchester is my home. All my family are there, but I don’t miss it. Maybe I’ll miss it if I don’t go for three months or something. But then when I get home I think there’s nothing there for me anyway.
“I’ve got no plans to move from Chelsea. We’ve still got a lot to play for. We’ve got the FA Cup semi-final [against Leeds] and if we finish in a Champions League spot it puts us in a good position to sign players that we need. We spoke to the owners and they’re sure of the players that are gonna do it. Reece won’t sign a six-year contract if he’s not spoken to the owners and the directors.
“Me and Reece spoke a lot. About things we need, players we need to sign and how things need to be. He wouldn’t sign a new contract if he didn’t know what was going on.”
Palmer’s deal runs until 2033. In a further sign of his commitment he has recently bought a house in Surrey. Two years ago he told a group of journalists that he found southerners “moody”. His views have changed now. “If you get someone like me who’s from Manchester and you get another person from Manchester, we’ll all just sit in this room and not say anything to each other,” Palmer says. “I like southern people. They just talk and talk and talk to you.” Ever wish they’d stop? “No,” he smiles. “It depends who it is.”
It is easy to forget that Palmer is young. He is something of a reluctant star. There were billboards of him all over New York last summer. He has come to understand why people stare at him in the street but says he is just like anyone else.
The difference is the attention. Everything moved so easily for Palmer after he grew tired of waiting for Pep Guardiola to give him a run at City. He joined Chelsea in September 2023 and found freedom under Mauricio Pochettino. He scored hat-tricks in two consecutive home games, finished his first season in west London with 25 goals in all competitions, was named the PFA Young Player of the Year and grabbed England’s equaliser in their defeat by Spain in the Euro 2024 final.
More followed last season: four goals in one half against Brighton, a virtuoso display against Real Betis in the Conference League final, two brilliant strikes to see off PSG in the Club World Cup final.
The world was at Palmer’s feet, only for his body to let him down. A nagging groin injury restricted him so much it was not until January that he registered his first assist of a stop-start season.
“An injury that hasn’t got a timeframe on it,” Palmer says. “It’s not like a muscle injury where you can say it’ll take eight weeks. When it first came on I came back versus Bayern Munich in September and did it at the end of the game. The 94th minute I tried to cross it. I knew I did something, and then we had United and obviously I tried to play but I couldn’t even run or walk or anything.
“I didn’t know how long I was going to be out for. I went to see a specialist and he said 10 to 12 weeks. Then I was playing when I was injured because I was out for 12 weeks and it was still not better.”
It was new to Palmer. “I’ve never been injured like this before. I’m sat there on the side for over three months. I came back in early December, Leeds away. I came on for 30 minutes, and I couldn’t even sprint. I could just about pass it. I couldn’t play long balls, couldn’t even shoot. But I wanted to play so much. I was trying to play and it was just too strange.” Forcing himself to play did Palmer no favours. “I didn’t know how to manage it,” he says. “That’s probably part of it.”
Palmer often looked like he was playing under a cloud. Thomas Tuchel, England’s head coach, has said the forward’s stride only returned when Chelsea faced Arsenal in early March.
Palmer says it was not until a few weeks ago that he felt free again. “I’m all right now,” he says. “It’s just about finding rhythm and performing again. Because I performed when I first got here. Last season I scored 14 Premier League goals in 20 games. Then the Club World Cup. It’s not just going to disappear. I’ve not lost all my ability. I’ve been injured.”
Even a half-fit Palmer has still hit double figures this season. That decisiveness is why he still looks a good bet to make Tuchel’s squad for the World Cup. Palmer was happy with his level in training during last month’s England camp. He felt he did well as a substitute against Uruguay but accepts that the defeat to Japan was a difficult night.
“It’s just about focusing on these last few weeks,” Palmer says. “Get back to myself that I know pretty well. Work hard and hopefully go away with England.” There were a lot of pictures of Tuchel hugging Palmer during training. “Yeah,” Palmer says. “When I’m happy I play my best.” Chelsea intend to keep him smiling.
