Darren Bent feels Manchester City would not get “the same Cole Palmer” as Chelsea have, as Pep Guardiola would not “allow him to flourish” like he does currently.
Palmer is one of the very best players in the Premier League. In just his second season of playing consistently, he has reached 33 goals and 18 assists in the top flight.
This season, only Mohamed Salah has been involved in more goals, and Palmer has helped Chelsea to second in the Premier League, while his former side, City, are struggling a couple of places below.
Pundit Bent has touched upon suggestions from City fans that they’d not be in that position if the attacking-midfielder was still with them, stating he’d not be “the same Cole Palmer” at the Etihad.
“Some Manchester City fans were saying ‘If we had whole Palmer still, we’d be better’ but I don’t think you’d have seen the same Cole Palmer. I think Pep wouldn’t allow him to flourish like he is at Chelsea.”
“Pep would not have built the team around Cole Palmer.”
It has been suggested by some that the City boss has ruined Jack Grealish, who was a free-flowing attacker, given freedom to carry the ball and draw defenders to him when he was at Aston Villa.
Now in a more regimented system at City, with a lot of good players around him, he has not got the same freedom to create and cause havoc for defences.
Bent’s co-host, Andy Goldstein, stated that Palmer would “have the Grealish taken out of him”.
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While it would be impossible to know how true that would be of the Chelsea man, he was not nearly as effective at City as he has been at Chelsea, though he’s had much more chance to star at Stamford Bridge than he did with his previous club.
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