Cole Palmer is tearing the Premier League apart while playing for an inconsistent Chelsea side. Following his four goals against Everton, he's level with Erling Haaland in the top scorer race this season with 20 goals.
The initial fee of £40m that Chelsea paid Man City for Palmer now seems peanuts. So why on Earth did City let their top talent go?
The answer has to do with how Man City approach loans. In 2018, Pep Guardiola clearly stated that if City can't loan a player, they sell him.
"If we cannot loan players they are going to come back here," said Pep. "If we don't believe they are going to play, if we cannot loan them, we are going to sell them.
In Palmer's case, a loan was off the table in the summer of 2023, as confirmed by the player himself.
"Initially I didn't want to leave," said Palmer following his transfer to Chelsea. "I said I would go on loan and play for a year so I was ready for first-team football more because I didn't play a lot of minutes [last season].
"But then Pep said, 'You're either staying or you're getting sold' and, so yeah, I just got sold."
Pep's black-and-white view of the situation is even stranger considering Palmer actually scored two goals for Man City in the 2023/24 campaign: one in the Community Shield against Arsenal and the other in the UEFA Super Cup against Sevilla. The Citizens were also short in the right-wing department following Riyad Mahrez's exit.
Admittedly, Palmer doesn't often play as a right winger as he likes to drift infield. Still, Man City don't have that many options there and Kevin De Bruyne's fitness has been a concern for some time.
Either way, what happened happened and each side can be satisfied. Chelsea and Palmer are obvious winners, but City sold their academy product for a pure profit and, truth be told, few would've predicted such a rapid rise from the player.
