Sometimes in life, success can be all about timing.
Over the past year, Cole Palmer has timed to perfection his emergence from a promising academy player at Manchester City into arguably Chelsea’s key performer and now a possible England squad regular.
Palmer has gone from the fringes at club level to a strong contender to play a major part at Euro 2024 this summer after a sensational season at Chelsea.
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There is often a late runner to make the plane and, carried by a knack for staying composed in the big moments, Palmer, 21, has emerged to add to Southgate’s impressive options in attacking positions.
Last summer, after rising through the academy ranks to be a part of Pep Guardiola’s squad, his 15 years at Manchester City culminated in lifting the treble, but that still wasn’t enough for Palmer.
He made 25 appearances during Manchester City’s unforgettable season but only started seven games. That wasn’t why he had spent hours after school practising with his father, Jermaine, in a park in Wythenshawe. He wanted to play and made the first big decision that hinted at the mental strength and self-belief he has shown since.
His £42.5million ($54m) move to Chelsea surprised many — initially because Chelsea had spent so much on a promising but unproven young player and then, as he began to establish himself and make headlines, because Guardiola allowed such an obvious talent to leave.
“If Palmer had the minutes I gave to Phil Foden from the beginning, Cole Palmer would be here — but I didn’t give them to him,” Guardiola later admitted. “That is my responsibility.
“Why? Because of Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez, Phil. In that moment, I chose the other ones.”
This season has been the first time Palmer has lived outside of Manchester, away from his close family circle and friends, but on the pitch, he has seemed to settle instantly into Mauricio Pochettino’s side.
“It was a big move for me,” Palmer said back in November. “I’ve never been out of Manchester, not even been on loan or anything like that, so to move down (to London) was big.”
With 14 goals and 12 assists in all competitions, including 11 goals and eight assists in the Premier League this season, Palmer is only behind Ollie Watkins, Mohamed Salah, Erling Haaland, Son Heung-min and Bukayo Saka for goal contributions in what is his first campaign as a first-team regular.
Palmer backed himself when he decided to move to Chelsea and he has repeatedly done so since, regularly taking on penalty duties ahead of Raheem Sterling and justifying his manager’s decision by scoring five out of five.
That calmness and ability to execute under pressure was never more evident than when he scored the stoppage-time penalty to snatch a point in a pulsating 4-4 draw with his former club at Stamford Bridge in November.
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Southgate was at that game and it must have already been in his mind to give Palmer his first call-up to the senior squad, but the youngster’s performance that afternoon and his temperament to take that penalty would have convinced him it was the right time.
“When I saw the ref point to the penalty spot, Raheem spoke to me,” Palmer said after he linked up with the England squad for the first time at St George’s Park last year.
“He said, ‘What’s happening?’. I said, ‘I want to take it’. He was like, ‘Fine’. Then, when I put the ball down, I just tried to focus on the spot I was going to put it in.”
The nonchalant way in which Palmer explained what happened in that moment revealed two things: first, how much trust his new team-mates had in him to allow such a young player to step up in that pressurised moment and second, how unfazed and confident he is. He is becoming a mentality monster.
“I’ve always liked trying to believe in myself without being over the top,” he says. “I can always be humble with it, but believing in your own ability is going to help you a lot.”
Palmer is rapidly becoming a player for those big moments. He demonstrated that in the summer when he stepped up to take a free kick in first-half stoppage time of the European Under-21 Championship final, beating Spain goalkeeper Arnau Tenas with the help of a wicked deflection off the back of Curtis Jones. It proved to be as decisive a moment as James Trafford’s last-gasp penalty double save.
Cole Palmer gives England the lead!
His free kick takes a huge deflection off the Spain wall and beats Tenas at the far post!#U21EURO
🎥 @C4Sport pic.twitter.com/BG4hNCkyE0
— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) July 8, 2023
Palmer proved it again last Sunday in Chelsea’s 4-2 FA Cup quarter-final win over Leicester City. Despite being relatively quiet in the first half when up against his former Manchester City youth team-mate Callum Doyle, he sprung into life to score the crucial second goal on the stroke of half-time and, after Leicester had fought their way back into the game, teed up Carney Chukwuemeka with a sensational backheeled flick to put Chelsea back in front in added time.
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The issue for Southgate must be not whether to use Palmer — and the time seems right to give the Chelsea man his first start in the next two friendlies against Brazil on Saturday and Belgium on Tuesday — but how to get the best out of him.
Palmer’s preferred position is off the right, but he has shown for Chelsea he can play anywhere across the front line, even as a false No 9 as well as deeper. Wherever he plays, he always seems to look to be positive, trying to play forward or take opponents on.
He nearly scored in that game against Manchester City when he picked up the ball in space and drove at three defenders before wriggling into the box, but couldn’t beat Ederson.
In such situations, Palmer is usually the coolest player on the pitch, as he showed at Luton Town when he latched onto Nicolas Jackson’s pass and went around goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski…
… and despite three recovering defenders closing in on him, he calmly stepped inside them to score his second goal of the game.
When Palmer plays deeper, he has the vision to pick out the runs of team-mates, as he does in this example against Tottenham Hotspur in November when he spots the runs of Jackson and Mykhailo Mudryk.
And against Brentford, he finds the run from deep of full-back Marc Cucurella by delivering an inch-perfect pass.
“Mauricio has given me the confidence and the licence to go where I want on the pitch where I feel I can use my strengths,” Palmer says. “I’m just grateful for it.”
Palmer may have only just come into the England reckoning, but he has done so in great form and with momentum.
It could be perfect timing for Palmer but also for Southgate and England because when those big match-defining moments come along, they have a player who has the talent and temperament to deliver.
(Top photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images)
