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Former Chelsea winger Pat Nevin has backed Cole Palmer to become one of the best players in the world in the future. The Scotsman has raved about the Manchester City youth graduate who has been phenomenal for Mauricio Pochettino's side upon his £40 million switch from the Etihad last summer.
Palmer has been the most impressive player for Chelsea this season despite the Blues' struggles for consistency. The 21-year-old caught the eye again with a four-goal haul against Everton on Monday, April 15.
The England international has registered 25 goals and 13 assists in 41 appearances across competitions for Mauricio Pochettino's side. Pat Nevin insisted that he knew that Palmer was a special talent but he is surprised at how fast he has grown as a footballer.
The pundit told Grosvenor Casinos, as quoted by Goal:
"I'm not surprised that Cole Palmer is this good, I'm just surprised he's this good this quickly. When he was at Manchester City I covered a few of his first games and I remember I almost shocked myself by saying that this guy could be the next Kevin De Bruyne."
"Just looking at him technically, as a player, he's got everything. But that's not the thing. The thing was that his teammates kept giving him the ball. He was playing for Manchester City coming off the bench and they were feeding him the ball, they were giving him the ball all the time. They'll know if somebody's not up to their standard from training. If they know you’re good enough it doesn't matter if you're aged 15 or 45 they'll give you the ball," he added.
Nevin also tipped Palmer for great things and insisted that he is much better than the likes of Kevin De Bruyne when he was of his age. He also hailed the Chelsea midfielder for his ability to perform under pressure.
"I thought Chelsea won the biggest watch imaginable by getting him. But I didn’t think he would be this good this quick. That would be too much to ask for. You have a look back at the likes of Kevin De Bruyne when he was at Cole Palmer’s age, was he as good? Was he at the top level in the Premier League scoring 20 goals?" he stated.
"I'm not saying he's going to be a better player than Kevin De Bruyne - but he's got what it takes. He's absolutely got what it takes to be one of the very best in the business. Whether that's going to continue Chelsea all his career we don’t know, certainly it's the perfect place for him now. Some people crumble under that pressure and some people just flower - he's the latter," Nevin added.
Palmer came through the youth ranks of Manchester City but did not get enough first-team opportunities for Pep Guardiola's side. He only managed six goals and produced two assists in 41 appearances for the Cityzens but has taken his game to another level following his switch to Chelsea.
Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino hits out at his players for penalty incident against Everton
Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino slammed his players despite his side's 6-0 demolition of Everton. The Blues came up with arguably their best showing this season but the day was somewhat marred by an argument among players regarding a penalty kick late in the game.
Noni Madueke won the spot kick and argued with Nicolas Jackson over who would take the penalty and Conor Gallagher needed to interfere. Mauricio Pochettino did not take the incident kindly and criticized his players for such attitude.
Following the game, he slammed the players for how and insisted that the players still have a lot to learn.
“Next time they’re all out. It’s not a joke. It’s impossible after a performance like this to have this behaviour. We have to learn a lot if we want to be a great team," Pochettino said (via journalist Fabrizio Romano's X).
Cole Palmer eventually took the shot and is now just one penalty kick behind Frank Lampard's tally of 10 Premier League goals from the spot in a season (2009-10).
