Chelsea star Cole Palmer is being linked with an exit from Stamford Bridge, following a stunning weekend performance against Tottenham Hotspur.
Palmer – ranked at no.18 in FourFourTwo's list of the best players in the world right now – scored two penalties to lead the Blues to a 4-3 victory in the London Derby. He is currently 25/1 to win the 2025 Ballon d'Or and has netted 33 times in 48 Premier League games since arriving at Stamford Bridge.
Having won the PFA Fans' Player of the Year and the Young Player of the Year last season, Chelsea now sit second in the table, with keen interest in Palmer's future from potential suitors.
Chelsea could face a battle to keep Cole Palmer
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher has issued a bold claim regarding Liverpool's chances at success this season
Jamie Carragher says Palmer has been the best player in the league since he joined Chelsea(Image credit: Getty Images)
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher, has reinforced Palmer's importance to Chelsea, claiming that no one in the Premier League has delivered a level above Palmer in the last 18 months – even Mohamed Salah – sending social media into meltdown.
"I loved him last season, and he's started this season really well,” Carragher said on Super Sunday. “If you look at his almost 18 months at Chelsea, I don't think there's been a player in the Premier League that's performed better than him over these 18 months. And he hasn't been playing for the best team, though they look like one of the best teams in the league right now.”
Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah
Not even Salah is at Palmer's level, says Carragher(Image credit: Getty Images)
Intriguingly, Spanish outlet Fichajes now claims that Real Madrid are tracking the No.10, and that Palmer himself is “interested” in Los Blancos.
“The player's future will depend on both Chelsea's willingness to listen to offers and Real Madrid's plans to carry out a transaction that promises to be complex,” they claim, calling the 22-year-old a “long-term bet”.
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Palmer hasn't long signed a nine-year contract with Chelsea, however, which is perhaps what the report is alluding to with the understatement, “complex”. It would almost certainly take a world-record fee to prise the England international away from the capital, along with making him one of the world's highest-paid players.
In FourFourTwo's opinion, the idea of such a move is fanciful – even despite Palmer's supposed “interest”.
Real Madrid president, Florentino Perez
Real Madrid may want Cole Palmer – but that doesn't mean they'll get him
Well, who wouldn't be interested in Real Madrid? The European champions rarely pay top dollar for talents anyway, preferring to allow them to run their contracts down before joining on free transfers – so we can chalk this one up to being overly ambitious, unless something major happens in the next year or so.
Palmer is worth €90 million, according to Transfermarkt. Chelsea host Brentford in the unusual kick-off slot of Sunday at 7pm next weekend, when Premier League action resumes.