Manchester City considered letting go of Cole Palmer before full-time contract, reveals former Etihad Stadium defender

Cole Palmer’s senior professional career hopes may have been hampered much earlier in his career, with Manchester City considering an early exit for the player.

Palmer brought an end to a 13-year association with the reigning Premier League champions in the summer transfer market of 2023, going on to endure one of the most remarkable debut campaigns in the leagues history at the first time of asking.

Manchester City and Chelsea agreed upon an initial £40 million transfer fee for the Etihad Academy graduate, potentially rising by a further £2.5 million in add-ons, before the Wythenshawe-born forward would sign on a seven-year contract at Stamford Bridge.

Etihad Stadium coaches were more than aware of the player’s exceptional talents and potential within the game, but with the player’s pathway blocked under Pep Guardiola in the wide positions, a decision was mutually agreed to let Palmer take up a new challenge elsewhere.

But Manchester City’s connection and remarkable profit made on a talent they nurtured over an extended period of time may have been lost much earlier on in their time together, according to one former player of the club.

Speaking on the latest edition of the ‘Planet Premier League’ podcast, Nedum Onuoha has claimed that City may have let go of Cole Palmer much earlier than his eventual departure to Chelsea in 2023.

“I’m not sure if this is common knowledge, but when he was coming through the City Academy, he was a good player, but he wasn’t the best,” Onuoha said. “It came to a point where I believe just before under 16s or 17s or full time, they were potentially going to let him go.”

He continued, “I think looking at sort of data, just the way he was as a person, they were looking to let him go.

“But apparently one of the reasons he stayed is Jason Wilcox, who was the academy director at Man City at the time, stuck his neck out and said, ‘No, I think there’s something here with this player.’ And now we get to see what type of player that he is.”

Onuoha went on to explain, “I think he came through a very good City academy side. It’s the side that won the Youth Cup in 2020. But I think it just shows sometimes, like to be able to see something and be able to have the courage to sort of stick with it.

“Cole Palmer could have been lost in a system. He could have been playing something else, could have been doing something somewhere else. But now we see him, as I say, as one of the best players in the Premier League.

“And it is, as I say, a lot of it, you could argue is down to Jason Wilcox when he was at City at that time.”

Palmer has started the new season exactly how he left off the last campaign, working under new coach Enzo Maresca at Chelsea, scoring six goals and providing four assists in just eight appearances so far.

That now takes Palmer’s overall goal contribution output to a staggering 31 goals and 19 assists in just 53 appearances for the London club, resulting in calls for the player to become a permanent feature of Lee Carsley’s England set-up for the forseeable.