In football, it’s very easy to make a lazy comparison.
That’s why any young Argentine playmaker is the ‘next Lionel Messi’ or a striker from acros the border in Brazil might be ‘the new Pele’.
Often these labels are completely superfluous and can end up doing more damage than good to a player’s development, but when a former player evokes the name of a previous team-mate while discussing a young talent, their take carries more weight.
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Geremi’s Cole Palmer-Frank Lampard comparison
Frank Lampard celebrates after scoring for Chelsea against Barcelona in the Champions League in March 2005.
Frank Lampard is Chelsea's all-time leading goascorer(Image credit: Getty Images)
When former Chelsea midfielder Geremi looks at the current Blues side, he sees something familiar in one of the best young Stamford Bridge talents.
“Frank Lampard and Cole Palmer are both goalscorers,” the ex-Cameroon international tells FourFourTwo. “They can score at any time during the game.
Frank Lampard
Geremi and Frank Lampard in training at Chelsea(Image credit: Getty)
“When you look at the way Frank used to play his role, he was a No.8, a player who would go from box to box. Palmer is more of an attacking player, but he has a lot of technical quality.”
Palmer’s performance in the Club World Cup final - six weeks after was named player of the match when Chelsea won the Conference League final - also caught the eye of the former Blues star.
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Chelsea were unfancied against an in-form Paris Saint-Germain side fresh from their 5-0 thumping of Inter in the Champions League final, but Palmer would outshine future Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele, scoring an opener when he calmly passed the ball into the corner from the edge of the box, as cool as you like.
Eight minutes later, he found the net again, before providing the clever through ball for Joao Pedro to score a third. Palmer had almost single-handedly destroyed the champions of Europe, easing to a 3-0 victory in the newly expanded tournament.
That showing saw him end the tournament with three goals and two assists, helping him earn the Golden Ball award for the tournament’s best player.
Chelsea forward Cole Palmer
Palmer was named player of the tournament at the Club World Cup this summer(Image credit: Getty Images)
“Palmer was nothing short of fantastic in that final,” beams Geremi. “I was so shocked. PSG were the team to beat, they were winning absolutely everything.
“But Chelsea were convincing winners. They deserved it, and Palmer was the man of the match. He’s a great player.”
Geremi was talking on behalf of Best Betting Sites