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Topics: Manchester City, FA Cup, Cole Palmer, Chelsea, Pep Guardiola
Alex Brotherton
Topics: Manchester City, FA Cup, Cole Palmer, Chelsea, Pep Guardiola
A hidden reason that contributed to Manchester City's decision to sell Cole Palmer has come to light, and Pep Guardiola might come to regret it.
A few eyebrows were raised when Cole Palmer swapped Man City for Chelsea last summer, but he has undoubtedly been the signing of the season.
The young attacker has more than repaid his £42.5 million price tag, having scored 25 goals and provided 13 assists in all competitions this season.
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Palmer is currently the Premier League's joint-top scorer alongside former City team-mate Erling Haaland with 20 goals, something nobody saw coming.
Palmer will face his former side on Saturday at Wembley Stadium in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, so naturally, City's decision to sell him is the narrative dominating the match build-up.
Palmer broke into the City first-team in 2021-22, but last season he struggled for minutes as he was behind Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez in the right-wing pecking order.
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City wanted to keep Palmer and promised him more game time once Mahrez decided to join Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia, but by that point the youngster had already set his heart on moving on.
According to The Athletic, in the months leading up to the summer City had considered loaning Palmer out because of one key reason.
By the mid-point of last season, Guardiola and his coaches felt that Palmer's confidence had dropped significantly from the previous year, and that his body language reflected that.
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One theory was that Palmer suffered from the departure of Guardiola's assistant Juanma Lillo in 2022, who helped him develop and break into the first-team picture.
City were planning to send Palmer out on loan in an effort to improve his confidence and help him rediscover his spark, something he has clearly managed to do at Chelsea.
Guardiola has always stressed the importance of body language, so it's understandable why City wanted to loan Palmer out.
It also makes sense why Palmer played just 850 minutes of football last season - Bernardo and Mahrez were in better form - and why they accepted an offer from a Premier League rival for a player who had decided he wanted to leave.
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However, with the benefit of hindsight, Guardiola and City might come to regret how Palmer's City story ended.