West Ham vice-chairman, Karren Brady, has remarkably revealed her side agreed a deal to sign Chelsea ace Cole Palmer in a failed transfer that has left two managers with huge regrets.
Palmer, 21, left Manchester City for Chelsea in the final stages of the summer transfer window. The classy attacker cost £42.5m to sign and his mesmeric displays this term have already made a mockery of that price tag.
Palmer has returned spectacular figures of 25 goals and 13 assists in 42 matches for the Blues. His mark of 20 goals in the Premier League places him joint-top in the scoring charts alongside Erling Haaland.
Making Palmer’s exploits all the more impressive is the fact he’s putting up those gaudy numbers in a Chelsea side that have struggled from start to finish this season.
Palmer will cruise to the honour of Chelsea’s Player of the Year and can expect to feature prominently for England at Euro 2024 on the back of his stellar displays at club level.
However, according to West Ham chief Karren Brady, it could so easily have been with the Hammers where Palmer was shining.
Writing in her column for the Sun, Brady revealed: “Financial rules on allowable losses may have played a part in [Man City’s decision to sell Palmer] but, still, from all the newsreels I have seen, Cole is as cool a dude in front of goal as Jimmy Greaves himself.
“Which is probably why David Moyes tried very hard to sign him. We even had a deal agreed with City until Chelsea swooped.”
Moyes, Guardiola both filled with regret
West Ham have struck gold with Mohammed Kudus this term and Jarrod Bowen has returned career-best figures of 15 goals in the Premier League.
However, the prospect of inserting Palmer into that forward line too is a mouth-watering one and unfortunately for Moyes, it’s one that can no longer happen.
Another manager with regrets over Palmer’s sale to Chelsea is Man City boss Pep Guardiola.
The Spaniard was asked about Palmer’s transfer ahead of his side’s 1-0 victory over Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday.
“[Palmer] was asking for two seasons to leave Man City,” revealed Guardiola. “I said: stay. He wanted to leave. What can we do?!
“He’s an exceptional player with super potential… I didn’t give him the minutes he deserves that he now has at Chelsea.”
Kevin De Bruyne has begun to struggle with injury, while Jeremy Doku lacks end product. £100m man Jack Grealish has provided just six goal contributions in 33 appearances across all competitions this season.
The report also stated City have a feeling Phil Foden’s stellar season has masked the fact City haven’t truly replaced the impetus provided by Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez.
As such, City have made Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala their No 1 transfer target for the summer. Retaining Palmer may well have averted the need to spend heavily on a lively new attacker.
