Palmer was thought to be too small to make it in professional football and never convinced Pep Guardiola – but he has since found a home under Mauricio Pochettino at Stamford Bridge
Youth matches involving Manchester City usually attract plenty of onlookers from far and wide — scouts, managers, coaches, parents — and to those watching on the touchline one afternoon something stood out about 14-year-old Cole Palmer.
Well, a few things stood out about Cole Palmer: his exquisite technique and technical ability, a tactical awareness so acute for someone so young. But aside from the football, what stuck out was how baggy the light blue jersey was on him, how it hung lower beneath the waist than the others, was wider and longer on the arms
It seems hard to believe now, aged 21 and standing at 6ft 2ins, but he was always one of the smallest players in Manchester City’s and England’s youth teams. It is something that Kevin Betsy, England Under-15s then Under-16s head coach in his first two years with the national team, remembers about watching Palmer for the first time when he starred for City in an Under-14s tournament at Warwick University.
The event, held over a couple of days, featured leading academies from around the country, plus a selection invited from abroad including Ajax and Porto, bringing together the most talented young players in Europe.
long legs. What that tells you in one of the smallest physical players is they have a lot of growth going forward. If their body shape looks a certain way you can see they have a lot of height growth potential.
“He was really good technically, tactically, in his decision-making. He wasn’t blessed with speed or strength or power, but he was able to influence a game. Over the course of games you noticed the way he played, with a lot of creativity and flair.”
Palmer won player of the tournament and was later invited to join the England youth teams at Under-15.
“He was a lovely boy,” Betsy recalls. “Really engaged in everything we were doing. He has a lovely family. I remember they travelled abroad with him for numerous tournaments. A really humble lad. He just wanted to keep improving.”
However, in the eyes of some City coaches the height deficit coupled with the intensity of competition in Manchester City’s academy was an issue.
It’s a subjective business. Where some coaches felt that his shooting from the edge of the box was too weak, others recognised the way he caressed the ball, the shape of the shot, when and why he took it. “Maybe the action might not be effective in that moment, but it is about intention,” Betsy says.
Unable to rely on brute force Palmer had to find clever ways to keep the ball, to use his smaller frame smartly, to understand and manipulate his centre of gravity — something that has clearly shaped the way he plays today.
It is knowledge and skill that was drilled into Palmer by his dad on patches of grass at Hollyedge and East Avenue Park, not far from their house in Wythenshawe, when Palmer was only five years old. Like most children, Palmer would want to set up a makeshift goal and shoot all day.
But father Jermaine — a pub football legend — would hurl the ball high in the air for Palmer to control and protect it, again and again. “No point trying to shoot if you can’t keep hold of the ball in the first place,” Jermaine would tell his son.
Betsy adds: “He’s always had to fight, to receive the ball in space under pressure, if you’re slight you have to fight to find pockets and space then glide through players.”
Still, coaches at City were seriously considering not offering him a scholarship contract, ahead of his Under-16 year, until Jason Wilcox, at the time City’s academy director and now Southampton’s director of football, stepped in.
“I have a great relationship with Jason Wilcox,” Betsy says. “I visited Manchester City on numerous occasions and he was very keen on Cole. He believed in him massively. As the overarching decision maker he was able to keep him at the club.
“He could see the long-term potential. Sometimes the performance weren’t there, even with the national set-up, but we believed long-term he’d turn out to be the player he’s become.
“He wasn’t always the standout player every time you watched him play. City had numerous high level players who would score three or four. Cole was one who was always bubbling under.”
Betsy puts it another way, quoting from The Gold Mine Effect, a book by talent identification specialist Rasmus Ankersen, now a director at Southampton.
“He was the talent that whispers.”
“He could see the long-term potential. Sometimes the performance weren’t there, even with the national set-up, but we believed long-term he’d turn out to be the player he’s become.
“He wasn’t always the standout player every time you watched him play. City had numerous high level players who would score three or four. Cole was one who was always bubbling under.”
Betsy puts it another way, quoting from The Gold Mine Effect, a book by talent identification specialist Rasmus Ankersen, now a director at Southampton.
“He was the talent that whispers.”
