4 hours ago, POCH OUT said:

Hats off to Martin Keown this morning on talksport, he stated that Cole is the BEST player in the PL bar none, i thought there was no way he was going to say this

Pundit (Walcott)? on MOTD said Palmer reminds him of Berkamp.

That's some praise

On 29/09/2024 at 10:57, Timmy Elms said:

As great as Lampard was, he was a mechanical footballer, as opposed to Cole who is more of a twinkle toed mercurial player

Both great players , Cole looks elegant, Frank had a different playing style, but was a fantastic player for us, let's hope Palmer becomes a legendary.player alongside Frank , JT, Drogba and all the others 

 

1 hour ago, Simplymo said:

I liked this, I think there maybe some truth to it too...would he be able to show his "kid in the playground" character in peps team?

 

Former Premier League midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker added: "We all marvel at Pep Guardiola, but you haver to be a certain type of player to play for Pep and his system. I don't think we would be seeing the same Palmer if he was still at Manchester City. Pep would not have given him that same freedom.

"Palmer suits being under Enzo Maresca."

I think he’s playing like he would with his mates he’s playing street ball in the PL and managers don’t seem to know how to handle it other than kick him.

3 hours ago, Simplymo said:

I liked this, I think there maybe some truth to it too...would he be able to show his "kid in the playground" character in peps team?

 

Former Premier League midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker added: "We all marvel at Pep Guardiola, but you haver to be a certain type of player to play for Pep and his system. I don't think we would be seeing the same Palmer if he was still at Manchester City. Pep would not have given him that same freedom.

"Palmer suits being under Enzo Maresca."

Agreed. But Maresca would probably Not have granted Palmer the same footballing freedom either.  Palmer had established his role and got his freedom established before the arrival of Pep-lite - Enzo Maresca. I am not sure Enzo can take the credit. I think the Chelsea squad is full of youth and the Chelsea chaos factor has allowed him to seize the day.

3 hours ago, 19seventyone said:

I never worked out why Utd fans engage him. He’s a Forest fan. He’s a twat but when Palmer scored the winner against Utd last season it was absolutely hilarious watching him wreck his bedroom.

To be fair, that Forest fan stuff is just spread by Twitter twats 😆

4 hours ago, Simplymo said:

I liked this, I think there maybe some truth to it too...would he be able to show his "kid in the playground" character in peps team?

 

Former Premier League midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker added: "We all marvel at Pep Guardiola, but you haver to be a certain type of player to play for Pep and his system. I don't think we would be seeing the same Palmer if he was still at Manchester City. Pep would not have given him that same freedom.

"Palmer suits being under Enzo Maresca."

Absolutely, we've seen a player like Grealish regress under Pep when previously at Villa he was an exciting player that had the freedom to express himself. He turns players into effective system players.

4 hours ago, nonotnowjim said:

Yeah - he is amazing - and there comes a point when its all subjective -  we are arguing over small details and semantics. Cole has reached the point with his numbers that indicate he should be right up there in the conversation with the best players. But for me, to take the crown, you need to be the best player in your overall position in the world. 

The EPL is blessed that there are a number of players who, in my opinion, are the best in the world in their respective positions. 

Alisson at GK

Rodri the best DM

De Bruyne CM

Van Djik the best CB

Haaland the best 9 etc

Salah at his best, the best wide forward

Palmer might turn out to be the best in due course, but for me, I dont think he is quite there yet to be called the best CAM in the world, and therefore I struggle to justify him being the named the best player in the league. 

But he is amazing. We are lucky that he is ours, and that we get to watch him weekly. If he keeps up these crazy numbers, then it wont be long before I can be persuaded.  But for now, Keown is still wrong 😄

 

 

 

NNNJ best form poster, as endorsed by Nicolas Jackson👌 

Edited September 30, 20241 yr by axman2526

55 minutes ago, timetowaste said:

Absolutely, we've seen a player like Grealish regress under Pep when previously at Villa he was an exciting player that had the freedom to express himself. He turns players into effective system players.

And Pep also turned Henry into a decoy runner at Barca. He needs players with humility or his system doesn’t work. 

He’ll guarantee success but many of his wingers (especially) become less effective individually in his system.

 

I think this hype around Palmer will help Sancho Madueke and Jackson.. if one of these 3 starts cooking and I think Jadon will .. then we really will get some great results .. 

Remember when we signed him and folk were saying he had to leave City as he wouldn't get in their side ahead of Foden & Co.

Now Foden is out of form and not playing regularly and Palmer looks better than ANY City player! I honestly wouldn't swap him for anyone.

 

17 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

Pundit (Walcott)? on MOTD said Palmer reminds him of Berkamp.

That's some praise

High praise but I can't see how they're particularly similar. Bergkamp played striker / 10, whereas Palmer is more winger / 10. Of all the players to compare to, Bergkamp seems a bit of a strange choice.

2 hours ago, Nibs said:

Remember when we signed him and folk were saying he had to leave City as he wouldn't get in their side ahead of Foden & Co.

Now Foden is out of form and not playing regularly and Palmer looks better than ANY City player! I honestly wouldn't swap him for anyone.

 

Funny how football works sometimes. The last minute signing that initially prefered to stay at City and who we signed for about a third of our most expensive recruitments ended up being the talisman thats going to save the whole project.

Stroke of luck that Pep didn't want to allow him to go on loan but credit to the recruitment team for being on it when he suddenly became available of course!

A couple of months ago, in the Estevao topic, I said that this type of signing has more meanings to it. He is only 17 and on everybody's lips in South America, rival fans call for him to be in the National Team already and everybody on that continent agrees he is the greatest young player since Neymar and will go to become a superstar. Now, what I am trying to say is that a player like this is generational and if everything goes as the data indicate, he has the potential to unlock a whole club and bring it to a new level on all platforms - sporting wise, brand wise, will attract millions of new fans, social media will explode, the club's image will massively improve as sponsors will gather around like vultures and so on and so forth. Basically it will propel the club to new heights.

Back to Cole Palmer now, I think we are on the verge of doing all these things even before Estevao arrives.

With Palmer everything comes so easy and natural, talent wise he is on par with some of football's greatests, he makes professional football look like everything you like to see as a kid, makes football look like exactly what you see it look when you are a kid watching and playing football 24/7 with your mates. Like Roger Federer in tennis, Palmer has this aura about him, a natural born talent that oozes class. Everything from his celebration, to his funny personality, his silly little interviews, the stupid ass replies he gives, you simply can't hate the guy and just like with Estevao, rival fans all agree he is class, which is a rare thing in football.

The last couple of days have put Palmer up there at the top with Lamine Yamal in terms of social media recognition. Eden Hazard in his prime was probably our last player to have been that praised by rival fans all around the world, although I think Palmer now takes it to a whole new level.

If he keeps this ridiculous G/A rate up it's going to be interesting to see rival fans claim "stats aren't everything" after throwing them in our face to claim Salah was better than peak Hazard for years.

Just now, Argo said:

If he keeps this ridiculous G/A rate up it's going to be interesting to see rival fans claim "stats aren't everything" after throwing them in our face to claim Salah was better than peak Hazard for years.

Whilst simultaneously claim Gerrard was better than Lampard for the exact opposite reason 

1 hour ago, Argo said:

If he keeps this ridiculous G/A rate up it's going to be interesting to see rival fans claim "stats aren't everything" after throwing them in our face to claim Salah was better than peak Hazard for years.

That Hazard Salah one wasnt the worst. I can accept that Salah was a cracking player and in his prime was one of the best in the world.

I used to get more bemused when the people (including the media) used to say Philip Coutinho was better than Hazard....now that was deluded, and hilarious!

1 hour ago, nonotnowjim said:

That Hazard Salah one wasnt the worst. I can accept that Salah was a cracking player and in his prime was one of the best in the world.

I used to get more bemused when the people (including the media) used to say Philip Coutinho was better than Hazard....now that was deluded, and hilarious!

Hazard was always the benchmark which I found funny. 

 

Bale v Hazard

Coutinho v Hazard

KDB v Hazard

Sanchez v Hazard

Salah v Hazard

5 hours ago, Gordon Bennett said:

Flogging Mount for 55 Million and buying Cole Palmer for 40 Million isn't spoken about enough. 

A huge upgrade which was risky on the owners end as it massively divided opinion amongst fans, but Cole is an upgrade above Mount in every single way except probably work rate, and even that's debatable because Palmer is excellent and closing defenders down and reading the backline. 

23 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

How?!

 

Haaland is considered the best striker in the world, playing for best team in league and he can’t even match Palmer’s output. 

And he’s a midfielder!!! Do you not realise just how crazy that is.

Here's another from the beeb just for @nonotnowjim

*cough cough* Jackson is there too. 

🤣

😘 (don't get excited, this one is from me and not jacko. Lol)

 

 

 

23 hours ago, Victor90 said:

Goldbridge seems to be the only one with some sense over there and that's saying something

I still haven't checked redcafe, have the tab open waiting for some free time, but thats just funny. Hahaha

 

20 hours ago, TheCeleryKing said:

Agreed. But Maresca would probably Not have granted Palmer the same footballing freedom either.  Palmer had established his role and got his freedom established before the arrival of Pep-lite - Enzo Maresca. I am not sure Enzo can take the credit. I think the Chelsea squad is full of youth and the Chelsea chaos factor has allowed him to seize the day.

You think so? I'm on the other side, I disagree mate.

He knew what palmer could do from before. I think he wanted him as a 10, the more he saw his development, instead of the RW like poch had him.

There's a lot in Palmers locker that is gradually coming out. But Maresca knows it's there imho. I doubt he expected it to be this quick though.

Edited October 1, 20241 yr by Simplymo
Adding the gfx would be good!

7 hours ago, Nibs said:

Remember when we signed him and folk were saying he had to leave City as he wouldn't get in their side ahead of Foden & Co.

Now Foden is out of form and not playing regularly and Palmer looks better than ANY City player! I honestly wouldn't swap him for anyone.

 

When I was looking  at the early comments on signing Palmer, one of the comments was something like " he might be ok but he's no Foden" !

Another said " it's not like he's going to be scoring goals for us"

And..." £40 million and inexperienced ? We might as well have have kept Mount" ?

We've all misjudged players and managers,  my comments look demented in the light of what eventually happens. 

I'm glad I never wrote my opinion of him, but that was only because I knew nothing about him, and I'll never live down my opinion that Morata was a cross between Peter Osgood  and Ian Hutchinson!

But what a gem Palmer is, an absolute joy to watch and everyone is talking about the lad.

 

 

6 hours ago, Gordon Bennett said:

High praise but I can't see how they're particularly similar. Bergkamp played striker / 10, whereas Palmer is more winger / 10. Of all the players to compare to, Bergkamp seems a bit of a strange choice.

It was more about the way he plays. His style, movement, how it looks effortless. And I'll add his elegance too. Berkamp's goal against Newcastle is just sublime I think.

Anyway, I love the fact that everyone agrees that one of our players is a bit special.

I've said for a few years now that I only want a Chelsea team that is good to watch if nothing else.

We've got that at the moment, and Palmer as a totally unexpected genius.

7 hours ago, Simplymo said:

You think so? I'm on the other side, I disagree mate.

He knew what palmer could do from before. I think he wanted him as a 10, the more he saw his development, instead of the RW like poch had him.

There's a lot in Palmers locker that is gradually coming out. But Maresca knows it's there imho. I doubt he expected it to be this quick though.

Fair enough.  Maybe it is Too early to be conclusive on Maresca's 'style' - Pep is very conservative.  Maybe Pep-lite Enzo would always have allowed Ice Cold Palmer his freedom.  Maybe there is more to Enzo than being Pep light?

Did Maresca actually know CP from City? did their timelines overlap?

8 hours ago, TheCeleryKing said:

Did Maresca actually know CP from City? did their timelines overlap?

Yes. 2020/2021 season, City U-21. Won the PL 2 league title together. Romeo Lavia was also the holding midfielder in that team. 

Both Palmer and Lavia went on to train with the first team permanently after that season. Maresca left to manage Parma in Italy's second division. He then came back for the 2022/2023 season as one of Pep's assistants and Palmer was still with the first team, so he had him for another season, albeit as an assistant manager.

But, yes, he knows him better.

On 30/09/2024 at 16:02, Malcolm9 said:

Yes if he continues playing like he is consistently. And yes, if we continue to progress and reward him accordingly, then why not.

After the past few years, Palmer is like a shot in the arm of really good stuff. Captain of my fantasy team last year and this one. first name down on our team sheet and and and... I think we could all go on. After the past 18 motnhs, only clubs like PSG, City or Madrid can now afford him and I doubt he'd go back to city in all honesty. 

So we're stuck with his outrageous talent for the next few years, as we were with Hazard and what a show he produced, Palmers numbers and work rate are already starting to look better than our former top talent...  Hope he wins as much as Hazard with us as well.