Man City have made an offer to re-sign Cole Palmer from Chelsea ahead of the summer transfer window, according to reports.
The Citizens allowed Palmer to move to Stamford Bridge in September 2023 in a deal worth £40m, with a further £2.5m expected in add-ons, after he was struggling to get in the team under Pep Guardiola.
Palmer has excelled at Stamford Bridge with the 24-year-old contributing 47 goals and 20 assists in 96 Premier League appearances for Chelsea.
This season has been disappointing for Palmer on a personal level, after being left out of the World Cup squad, and for the Blues, who ended up finishing 10th in the Premier League.
Palmer still managed ten goals and one assist in 26 Premier League matches this term but his performances have been below his usual standards.
And now reports in Spain claim Man City have ‘offered’ €100m (£86m) for Palmer as ex-Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca looks to bring him back to the Etihad Stadium in the summer.
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After rumours he could think about moving to Man Utd in the summer, Palmer is ‘starting to consider a change of scenery to rediscover the form that made him one of the Premier League’s biggest stars’.
The report adds: ‘For Palmer, missing the World Cup serves as a warning. His star status and past achievements are no longer enough. He needs to feel important again, accumulate quality playing time, and regain confidence in a context that allows him to be a key player.
‘Chelsea is not going through its best period, either institutionally or on the pitch. The fact that they won’t be playing in European competition next season reduces their appeal and could jeopardize the future of some key players.’
And Man City’s offer close to €100m ‘changes everything’ with that figure allowing ‘the London club to reorganize its squad planning, strengthen several positions, and alleviate financial pressure’.
TalkSPORT transfer insider Alex Crook insists that Chelsea are in a ‘vulnerable position’ without European football despite not wanting to sell Palmer.
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Crook wrote: ‘Chelsea sources have made it clear they have no plans to sell Palmer but missing out on a place in the Champions League could leave them in a vulnerable position.’
Former Man City midfielder Gareth Barry thinks it would be understandable for Palmer to seek a move away from Chelsea in the summer amid the turmoil at Stamford Bridge this season.
Barry told Midnite: “Any player wants to be playing in a settled dressing room at a settled club. If you’re in a dressing room that is perhaps slightly toxic, it is hard to go into training and perform every day, it’s not nice.
“We all know the dressing room is so strong if you get two or three players starting to doubt the manager’s beliefs or his methods, it naturally creeps in. If those few players aren’t happy, they’re not going to be performing at the levels they can if something’s eating away at them, and it can leak into the whole team’s performance. If that was the case at Chelsea it would be affecting the dressing room.”
Barry added: “Any player, Cole Palmer and others, if they aren’t seeing a long-term settled future at Chelsea, it’s natural for them and their agents to start looking and thinking ‘where can we go and achieve things’ in what ultimately is a quick career as a football player.”
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