Cole Palmer plays football like a kid on the street. Like how Jack Grealish used to.
You’ve got to hope Palmer never changes. Watching him is joyous, he’s a free-flowing player who works on instinct and his own ingenuity. This was the year he emerged as one of the best players in the Premier League. Not the best. That remains Mohamed Salah.
But Palmer, at 22, has so many great years ahead of him. But it is just watching him that makes him some sort of throwback. You could imagine him playing in any era. Just rambling about on the pitch looking for passes and where he can pull off a little magic.
In a world of systems and styles of play, Palmer goes against that. Hopefully no manager coaches it out of him. While at Manchester City we’ve watched Grealish lose all of that magic he was so good at with Aston Villa.
Grealish showed glimpses of his brilliance during City’s Treble-winning campaign when he shone in the second half of the season after the World Cup. But since then, he’s gone into a shell and seems constrained by the tactical genius of Pep Guardiola rather than free to do as he pleases.
(Image: PA)
Grealish played like a maverick at Villa but he’s lost that. Now he’s lost his numbers, too. He’s gone a year without a goal and he didn’t take well to Villa fans mocking him last week.
Now Guardiola has never held a player back and made so many players better it would make a list as long as Santa’s. But he may have overcoached Grealish. So maybe in a weird way it was good for Palmer to get away from City and shine at Chelsea.
(Image: Getty Images)
He seems a player free of any reins and his numbers show that. Palmer has a long way to go to be a player as good as the likes of Salah now or Kevin De Bruyne in his pomp. But enjoy watching him. It’s hard not to.
The way he reacts in interviews just adds to it. He doesn’t get the fuss, he doesn’t conform to the stock lines so many players who come through top-level academies come out with. Palmer is a maverick and that’s why he’s the player I’ve enjoyed most watching in 2024.